Technion responds to New York mayor’s threats

Shortly after he won a seat in the New York State Assembly in 2021, New York mayor elect Zohran Mamdani called for a boycott of the joint campus of Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology on Roosevelt Island, known as Cornell Tech.

The New York City Council provided the land on the island, and put $100 million into the project, seeking to develop the city’s technology industry. A spokesperson for Mamdani said that if he was elected mayor, he would reassess the partnership between Cornell and the Technion, saying that as an institution that develops technologies that serve the IDF, the Technion should not benefit from funding from New York City.

As mayor, Mamdani will be able to appoint members of the board of management of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, which could force Cornell into decisions against the partnership.

This morning, after the result of the New York mayoral election became known, the Technion published a statement referring to the “strong partnership”, and adding, “We at the Technion expect to continue working together with our colleagues at Cornell University and at the Cornell Tech campus in fruitful collaboration with the institutions of the New York City government, as we have up to now.”

The campus was inaugurated in better days, in 2017, when the losing candidate in yesterday’s election Andrew Cuomo was governor of the State of New York and Bill de Blasio was mayor of New York City. The idea of setting up the joint campus was formed during Michael Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor. He invited the heads of universities from various countries to take part in a competition for setting up the campus, which was won by Cornell and the Technion.

The Technion’s statement goes on to say, “Since it was established in 2012, the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute has become a flourishing and successful institute that encourages global entrepreneurship and drives the development of the city’s economy and the technology sector that works in it. The entrepreneurship program in the institute, the Runway Postdoc Startup Program, has so far yielded some 130 knowledge-intensive startup companies the vast majority of which (84%) are based in New York, create jobs, and contribute to the city’s technology ecosystem.

“The partnership between the Technion and Cornell was born out of a vision of establishing an applied science and engineering research campus in the City of New York and creating a fruitful and powerful bridge between academia and industry. The partnership has contributed a great deal to the development of the city.

“The collaboration between the two universities and the New York city government has proved that excellent universities can not only lead to academic achievements, but can also serve as powerful economic engines.”

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on November 5, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.