Jewish billionaire Michael Moritz gives $115 to Oxford
Published July 13, 2012
(JTA) — A Jewish venture capitalist has made a $115 million donation to the University of Oxford to help fund a scholarship program.
Michael Moritz, who funded the program with his wife, Harriet Heyman, said his father escaped Nazi Germany and was able to study at Oxford thanks to scholarship assistance. “He was plucked as a teenager from Nazi Germany,” Moritz said, according to news reports. “He was able to attend a very good school here in London entirely on a scholarship. He went on to study at Oxford and had a Ph.D. financed entirely from a scholarship.”
Born in Wales, Moritz made his fortune at Sequoia and was an early investor in Google, YouTube and LinkedIn.
The scholarship gift is the couple’s second major gift to Oxford; they previously gave $50 million to Moritz’s alma mater, Christ Church.
“I would not be here today were it not for the generosity of strangers,” Moritz said.
Want timely updates? Follow @JTAnews on Twitter!
Click to login and write a letter to the editor.
This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.
