Judge Says UPenn Must Comply in Federal Antisemitism Probe and Supply List of Jewish Employees

A federal judge ordered the University of Pennsylvania to supply records on its Jewish employees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as part of an ongoing probe into alleged campus antisemitism.

The Details: District Judge Gerald Pappert of Philadelphia said Penn doesn't have to offer by name which Jewish organizations each employee is affiliated with but upheld most of the commission's subpoena and said the university has until May 1 to comply. Employees will be allowed to opt out of participating in the investigation but must give the commission "the opportunity to talk to them directly to learn if they have evidence of discrimination."

For Context: The probe is the result of reported antisemitic incidents during Gaza war protests at the university in recent years, including the painting of a swastika on a campus building, graffiti on a fraternity, reports of antisemitic slurs, and vandalism of a Jewish student life center.

Key Quotes: Pappert wrote, "Penn and other groups and associations the court permitted to intervene significantly raised the dispute's temperature by impliedly and even expressly comparing the EEOC's efforts to protect Jewish employees from antisemitism to the Holocaust and the Nazis' compilation of 'lists of Jews.' Such allegations are unfortunate and inappropriate." Penn wrote, "While we acknowledge the important role of the EEOC to investigate discrimination, we also have an obligation to protect the rights of our employees. We continue to believe that requiring Penn to create lists of Jewish faculty and staff, and to provide personal contact information, raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns. The University does not maintain employee lists by religion."

How The Media Covered It: The story was very widely covered by the left but scantily by the right. The New York Times' (Lean Left bias) and The Guardian's headlines stood out in that they said the judge ordered Penn to provide a list of "Jews" to the Trump administration and did not include that it pertained only to employees or was part of a probe. Most other outlets included that the ruling pertained specifically to Jewish employees or was part of a subpoena in headlines. The Times of Israel (Center) noted in its headline that the order was part of an antisemitism probe, context that effectively all other mainstream outlets left out of their headlines.

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