Antisemitism, one of the world’s oldest hatreds, has found a new justification: its prevention.
On July 23, 2025, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ordered the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) to hand over a list of Jewish faculty and students in order to “identify employees who may have experienced antisemitic harassment” as a part of its ongoing investigation into claims of antisemitism at the university. Penn refused to comply, and was sued by the EEOC on Nov. 18, 2025. On Mar. 31, 2026, federal judge Gerald Pappert ordered Penn to comply with the subpoena. Penn again refused to comply, calling the request an “extraordinary and unconstitutional demand,” and saying that it was “entirely unnecessary.” On April 27, Penn was granted a stay from the May 1 deadline they were originally given, allowing slightly more time to argue against the subpoena and lawsuit.
There are a number of concerns surrounding this investigation and the way it is being conducted. “The government’s approach to antisemitism is not very thoughtful, and it’s not very helpful, and it’s arguably antisemetic in its own right, because it’s singling out Jews,” says Dr. Steven Weitzman, a Professor of Jewish studies and director of the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at Penn. “I welcome people’s efforts to fight prejudice, including antisemitism, but … I’m opposed to the government trying to disclose people’s religious identities without their consent,” he says.
Penn is claiming that this order violates the First and Fourth Amendment rights of faculty and students. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, while the Fourth enshrines the right to privacy.
Weitzman has two main concerns with the order. Firstly, he “just [doesn’t] believe that the government has the right to force the university to disclose people’s identities without [their] willingness to do so.” He believes it is an issue of “privacy rights and First Amendment rights.” Secondly, Weitzman is on Penn’s antisemitism task force, which was created in Nov. 2023 as a response to antisemitism, and has conducted multiple listening sessions with Jewish students, faculty, and staff to determine their experiences. The task force promised these people confidentiality, he says, but “the government wants to know [their] names and contact information.”
In addition to the official order to the university, the EEOC has also contacted multiple employees, including Weitzman, on their personal devices. In Weitzman’s case, this information is not publicly available anywhere, and he is unsure how they obtained his personal cell phone number. This represents an even more overt violation of privacy that arguably negates their need to get information from the University at all.
Beyond the First and Fourth Amendment issues with this order, there is a very clear and problematic historical parallel. Namely, the Holocaust was so incredibly devastating largely because of the detailed lists of Jews that the Nazis created early on. This extensive documentation enabled the resulting genocide; without it the Nazis would not have been able to cause as much harm. In 1935, the Nuremberg race laws required Jews to register themselves as such, and in 1938 they were required to register all of their property and valuable assets and get their passports stamped with the letter J. During the 1939 census, a “Jewish registry” was created. These laws are chillingly similar, albeit more overt, to the EEOC’s demands today.
Echoing Nazi actions under the guise of protecting Jews is a disgusting, but sadly unsurprising, choice on the part of the Trump administration. Although antisemitism is undoubtedly a problem, — one that I have experienced firsthand — the Trump administration does not care about Jews in the slightest. This is evident from their ties to numerous blatantly antisemetic politicians, creators, and activists, and the comments echoing antisemetic stereotypes made by Trump and members of his cabinet. Rather, we are seen as an easy, convenient scapegoat — just as we have been for the last 5,000 years. Because pitting marginalized groups against each other — singling some out in the name of “protection” and forming more division — creates a world in which oppressed peoples are unable to unite and rise up against those in power. Power comes from solidarity, and they know that if we work together, we are stronger than those in power will ever be.
The Trump administration is not taking action to prevent discrimination — be it racism, sexism or homophobia — and, in fact, is actively perpetuating, legalizing, and condoning these forms of discrimination. Antisemitism is no exception. The EEOC and Trump administration claim their actions towards Penn are meant to protect Jews. This is not the first time that they have taken action under the guise of protecting the Jewish people. In January 2025, the Trump administration used the excuse of combating antisemitism to aggressively crack down on pro-Palestinian campus protests. To be clear, the Jewish community wanted to fight back against rising antisemitism on campus. Deporting pro-Palestinian students and limiting their free speech is not what the vast majority of the Jewish community wanted.
The Trump administration is following a well practiced playbook used by antisemitic leaders throughout history: elevate Jews to a slightly higher level, making other marginalized groups resent them, instead of turning on our oppressors. They pretend to work on stopping antisemitism, scapegoating us just subtly enough that most people don’t recognize it — but enough to divide us, preventing solidarity. All the while, the EOCC, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this article, collects our personal information for an abstract future use. This playbook is old, and it is tired, and we are sick of it.
Even if the Trump Administration’s end goal was to “protect Jews,” why do they think this is the best way to approach it? Why, instead of funding Holocaust education that teaches students across the country critical thinking and the realities of our history, do they cut the Department of Education? Why do they ban books; cut diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs; and actively try to rewrite history?
Though Donald Trump may claim he has “Jewish friends,” Benjamin Netenyahu and Jeffrey Epstein do not represent Jewish values. I was raised to believe Jews value life, connection, kindness, and social justice. We believe in Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. Mr. Trump, — and the Jews he associates with — are tearing the world apart.
To be clear, this is a problem beyond the Trump administration. Take the Blue Square ad, which ran during the Super Bowl and was funded by Robert Craft, owner of the Patriots and a Trump supporter, in which a Jewish boy is bullied in a school hallway with a post-it note on his backpack reading “Dirty Jew.” Whether intentional or not, this ad feeds into many antisemetic stereotypes. The small, nerdy, curly-haired Jew is bullied, and saved by someone bigger and stronger. Instead of treating marginalized groups as though they need to be protected, give them the voice to share what they actually need to feel safe. As the people who experience antisemitism, we are the most qualified to tell you how to combat it. You cannot be our oppressor and our savior at the same time.
I believe that the EEOC and Trump administration know exactly what they are doing. They know how it looks, know — as Weizman states — that “It evokes memories of the Holocaust for people.” And they could not care less. One would hope that over a third of the world’s Jews were not lost only for the same patterns to appear so explicitly less than a hundred years later. This order is a slap in the face to every Holocaust survivor, and every Jew worldwide who has ever had to learn about concentration camps and the mass killings of their ancestors. As Holocaust denial rises and the last survivors pass away, this sets a disturbing precedent.
One in five Americans ages 18-29 believe the Holocaust was a myth. On Mar. 31, Gerald Pappet, the case’s judge, denounced comparisons to the Holocaust and the Nazis’ well-documented practice of keeping lists of Jews, saying that “Such allegations are unfortunate and inappropriate.”
First it’s lists, then it’s stars. How many years until we’re wearing yellow stars on our coats and have red J’s on our passports “for our protection”? How many years until we’re living in ghettos “to keep us safe”?
The Holocaust started fewer than a hundred years ago, and ended just over eighty. How are we already allowing the same patterns to happen once again?
