The Trump administration will get a list of Jewish people working at the University of Pennsylvania in order to further its investigation into alleged antisemitism on campus.
Philadelphia federal judge Jerry Pappert on Tuesday refused to block a subpoena issued to UPenn by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, holding that identifying Jews on staff will not deter them from practicing their religion.
The group Public Citizen claims the investigation is a case of President Donald Trump pushing his conservative agenda on America’s schools, while the EEOC says it is simply looking into evidence of a hostile work environment.
Pappert refused to agree that the subpoena would prevent Jews from participating in events on campus and said a proposal to give them the contact information for the EEOC to reach out on their own is inadequate.
“The EEOC seeks to investigate the charge by contacting potential victims or witnesses of harassment and informing them of their rights,” Pappert wrote.
“Employees may refuse to participate in the investigation, but the EEOC needs the opportunity to talk to them directly to learn if they have evidence of discrimination.”
The EEOC charge cites public statements of antisemitism directed at Jewish faculty. Incidents include a swastika painted on an academic building, disturbing emails and pro-Hamas rallies.
Trump has issued an executive order that required executive agencies to submit reports on antisemitism at colleges since October 2023, threatening that federal funding will stop for schools that allow “illegal protests.”
UPenn is now in the federal government’s crosshairs. A student group in 2024 called “Penn Against the Occupation” on social media criticized 29 faculty members who traveled to Israel. The subpoena seeks information about those members of the UPenn staff, identities of anyone who reported the post and the school’s investigation into the post.
Jewish students and a group called Students Against Antisemitism sued UPenn in 2023 but recently lost their civil rights case. Judge Mitchell Goldberg dismissed the case in June, curious as to why the 111-page complaint contained allegations of antisemitism in places all over the world.
The suit said UPenn refused to punish slurs and chants including “F— the Jews” since 2023, when the latest conflict between Israel and Palestine began.
UPenn says it has received three antisemitism complaints out of 20,000 employees. It claimed some of the information sought by the EEOC is confidential and irrelevant.
