Palestinian American CEO Andrew Dudum is offering jobs to college students participating in the anti-Israel campus protests across the U.S. as other entrepreneurs announce their refusals to hire anyone from Columbia University because of the massive encampment demonstration.
Dudum, who has said he has family in Gaza and the West Bank, founded the men’s telehealth company Hims in 2017, the Daily Mail reports.
“Moral courage > College degree,” he wrote on X Wednesday.
“If you’re currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your university’s divestment from Israel, keep going. It’s working,” the CEO, 35, continued.
“There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline,” he added before inserting a job application link:
Moral courage > College degree
If you’re currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your university’s divestment from Israel, keep going. It’s working.
There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline.…
— andrewdudum (@AndrewDudum) May 1, 2024
Hims, a publicly traded company, initially started out by selling treatments for erectile dysfunction and male hair loss before launching the female-centric Hers brand for birth control and libido-increasing drugs.
Dudum’s post received a wave of backlash, including from his own investors.
“Good luck. I plan to liquidate my position in $HIMS,” stock market investment adviser James DePorre. “When a CEO shows the amazingly poor judgment to post something like this, I don’t trust him to act in the best interest of the company. This is a breach of your fiduciary duty to your shareholders”:
Good luck. I plan to liquidate my position in $HIMS. When a CEO shows the amazingly poor judgement to post something like this, I don’t trust him to act in the best interest of the company. This is a breach of your fiduciary duty to your shareholders. https://t.co/R8qaa7YM9j
— James DePorre (@RevShark) May 2, 2024
“I’ve been an investor almost since IPO and a subscriber for a few months,” another X user wrote. “I’ve sold my entire position in $HIMS today and canceled my subscription. Can’t support the level of incompetence that would hire Marxist scholars who hate America like this person”:
I’ve been an investor almost since IPO and a subscriber for a few months. I’ve sold my entire position in $HIMS today and cancelled my subscription. Can’t support the level of incompetence that would hire Marxist scholars who hate America like this personhttps://t.co/SkQLdL0Ovf
— genghis (e/acc) (@genghisbrain) May 2, 2024
Another investor likened Hims to “Hamas.”
“I am selling my entire $HIMS position at 9:30 am @AndrewDudum,” he wrote, along with a screenshot of a portfolio containing 2,010 shares of the company.
“It may not be much, but I cannot support anyone that is wrongly accusing Israel for genocide,” he added. “HIMS sounds more like HAMAS now”:
I am selling my entire $HIMS position at 9:30 am @AndrewDudum 🖕🏼
It may not be much, but I cannot support anyone that is wrongly accusing Israel for genocide.
HIMS sounds more like HAMAS now.. https://t.co/Uf6c5oUT4W pic.twitter.com/MeKoq9UMRm
— Lior 🇺🇸 🇱 (@liorsela) May 2, 2024
Dudum, however, called Hamas’s actions on October 7 a “horrendous” terrorist attack on “innocent Israel civilians” in a blog post a month after the incident.
He went on to lament that the Israeli military had killed an estimated 10,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,000 children, in several counter attacks in the weeks that followed.
“As a father whose children are both the descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled the Nakba in 1948, and the descendants of Holocaust survivors from Poland, I have a deep consideration for nuance in my life,” the health CEO stated. “My Thanksgiving table requires it.”
He concluded his post by saying he wants to “spread truth” so that Palestinians and Israelis are able “to find a lasting peace.”
Dudum’s public offer to hire protesters comes as other CEOs announce their refusals to do so, as approximately 2,200 people have already been arrested in recent weeks, according to the Daily Mail.
Technical analyst Tom McClellan posted on Sunday, “Attention job seekers. I will not hire any recent graduate of Columbia, because that school is so tainted that I will not be able to trust in the character nor the educational attainment of any of its students.”
He went on to justify his stance by saying the “academic requirements there are so lax such that students have time to go set up protests on the quad instead of studying”:
And I furthermore will not hire any older graduates either, because it has become evident that the academic rot is so deeply ingrained as to taint others who have come through that institution in the past several years. I cannot have faith that any former Columbia student could have achieved sufficient academic success, especially in light of the overwhelming recent evidence that the academic requirements there are so lax such that students have time to go set up protests on the quad instead of studying.
In case you are a Columbia alum who might actually be a good person, please feel free to cite this declaration as evidence in your lawsuit against Columbia for having contaminated your personal brand as a graduate, and your employment value. You should definitely seek damages.
Attention job seekers. I will not hire any recent graduate of Columbia, because that school is so tainted that I will not be able to trust in the character nor the educational attainment of any of its students.
And I furthermore will not hire any older graduates either, because…
— Tom McClellan (@McClellanOsc) April 28, 2024
Canadian consultant Warren Kinsella made similar remarks on X, stating, “At the firm I founded 18 years ago, and in the war rooms I’ve run for the past 31 years, I’ve employed hundreds of young people. I’ll never again hire one from @Columbia”:
At the firm I founded 18 years ago, and in the war rooms I’ve run for the past 31 years, I’ve employed hundreds of young people. I’ll never again hire one from @Columbia.
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) April 27, 2024
In a follow-up statement to Newsweek, Kinsella said, “The anti-bias campaign consultancy I founded nearly 20 years ago in Canada will no longer hire anyone from Columbia. I came to this decision with no enthusiasm—but what is happening at Columbia, and elsewhere, didn’t leave me with any other option. I can’t hire bigots or excuse anti-Semitism.”
Meanwhile, Islamic jidhadist-controlled universities in Iran and Yemen have offered admission to students facing disciplinary action for the protests, Breitbart News reports.
