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Steinhardt Hall at Penn, home of the school\u2019s Hillel house (Photo credit: Stephen Silver)<\/p>\nSteinhardt Hall at Penn, home of the school\u2019s Hillel house (Photo credit: Stephen Silver)<\/p>\n
Despite the implications relating to dark periods in Jewish history, a federal judge has ruled that the University of Pennsylvania does have to turn over information on Jewish employees to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
The administration\u2019s Equal Opportunity Employment Commission initially attempted to subpoena the information as part of its investigation into antisemitism at Penn. The school responded in January by bringing legal action opposing the requests.<\/p>\n
The judge in the case, Gerald J. Pappert, said that Penn and the leaders of Jewish groups on campus, who submitted separate filings, basically blew the request out of proportion by comparing it to Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cPenn and other groups and associations the Court permitted to intervene significantly raised the dispute\u2019s temperature by impliedly and even expressly comparing the EEOC\u2019s efforts to protect Jewish employees from antisemitism to the Holocaust and the Nazis\u2019 compilation of \u2018lists of Jews,\u2019\u201d Pappert wrote. \u201cSuch allegations are unfortunate and inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pappert continued by saying that the request had \u201can understandable purpose,\u201d which was to obtain \u201cinformation on individuals in Penn\u2019s Jewish community who could have experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
He ordered Penn to comply by May 1. The school promised to appeal the ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we acknowledge the important role of the EEOC to investigate discrimination, we also have an obligation to protect the rights of our employees,\u201d wrote Penn officials in a statement. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Instagram, Penn Hillel, one of the Jewish groups that joined the filing, said, \u201cWe are disappointed by the court\u2019s decision and strongly urge the University to appeal this ruling. While the court made clear that most Penn Hillel staff are not directly impacted, we stand in firm solidarity with those faculty, staff, and students who are.<\/p>\n
Accountability in the face of discrimination is essential, but it must not be achieved by compromising the security of any minority community. We call on all parties to pursue this investigation in a manner that addresses antisemitism while safeguarding the fundamental rights of those it aims to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EEOC launched the investigation in 2023 under the Biden administration, but it made the request for info of Jewish employees last year during the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
The investigation began after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on southern Israel.<\/p>\n
Between the attack and the start of the probe, tags reading \u201cThe Jews R Nazis\u201d were found near Penn\u2019s AEPi house; antisemitic emails threatened physical violence against Jews, Penn Hillel and the Lauder College House, a building named for a Jewish donor family; at campus rallies, speakers supported the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas\u2019 military wing, and chanted \u201cintifada, intifada,\u201d a call for violence.<\/p>\n
In December 2023, Penn President M. Elizabeth Magill was forced to resign from her position after failing to forcefully condemn hypothetical calls for genocide against Jews while testifying at a congressional hearing. She described disciplining Penn students who called for genocide against Jews as a \u201ccontext-dependent decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
The following spring, an anti-Israel encampment on campus lasted two weeks. It took a forceful statement from Pennsylvania\u2019s Jewish governor, Josh Shapiro, to get the school to finally break up the disruptive encampment, which stood on the campus green during graduation season.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll students should feel safe when they\u2019re on campus. All students have a legal right to feel safe on campus,\u201d Shapiro said at the time, according to The Bedford Gazette, a newspaper that was covering the separate event at which he spoke that day. \u201cThe University of Pennsylvania has an obligation to their safety. It is past time for the university to act, to address this, to disband the encampment and to restore order and safety on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since that time, Penn has established an Office of Religious and Ethnic Inclusion to handle discrimination complaints, protest guidelines to prohibit encampments and overnight demonstrations, a position of neutrality on local and world events that do not directly impact the school, and mandatory anti-discrimination training for students, faculty and staff. It has also added antisemitism as a category in its bias reporting systems.<\/p>\n
The school has also otherwise cooperated with the EEOC probe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have cooperated extensively with the EEOC, providing over 100 documents, totaling nearly 900 pages; however, we have not turned over to the government lists of Jewish employees, Jewish student employees and those associated with Jewish organizations, or their personal contact information. Violating their privacy and trust is antithetical to ensuring Penn\u2019s Jewish community feels protected and safe,\u201d the school told Philadelphia Jewish Exponent in a statement in November about the attempt to subpoena names of employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no merit to the EEOC\u2019s claims that Penn is withholding complaints,\u201d said a Penn spokesperson at the time.<\/p>\n