Young Presidents Organization, a group that boasts more than 34,000 chief executives as members worldwide, is facing backlash for refusing to condemn the Hamas attacks, On The Money has learned.
In a memo late Wednesday that some called shamefully noncommittal, YPO noted it has members from more than 140 countries “who represent a wide variety of languages, religion, and cultural customs bound by a shared set of values.”
The statement added that the group has “very clearly defined code of conduct” and that “fostering hatred or conflict within our community, or using YPO as a platform to seed political division, is not acceptable.”
On Thursday, members were petitioning fellow YPO members and leadership to update the statement to explicitly call out Hamas.
“Jewish babies had their heads chopped off and Jewish women were raped, and YPO can’t simply say we condemn Palestinian Hamas,” one outraged member said of YPO’s statement. “If YPO won’t condemn terror, they will lose half their members in the next week worldwide… No one decent will remain in YPO.”
In a Thursday response, angry members told YPO leadership that “Normally, divisions and contrary viewpoints are something we welcome, but in this case these viewpoints have included calls to further violence against Jewish people, and support for an organization whose charter makes explicit calls for the killing of all Jewish people.”
The letter adds that, “The attacks on October 7th resulted in the single largest loss of Jewish life since six million or more of our people were methodically rounded up and slaughtered in Europe. We are shaken to our cores, and the world seems, concerningly, divided.”
While YPO keeps its membership secretive, it is known to host retreats and meetings for young executives and founders with speakers including Bill Clinton, Kevin O’Leary, and Lance Armstrong, according to the website.
A representative for YPO did not immediately respond to request for comment.