A US federal judge on Tuesday authorized the Trump administration to require the University of Pennsylvania to hand over information on Jewish employees as part of an anti-Semitism investigation, despite opposition from the establishment and Jewish groups on campus.
The measure stems from an investigation launched in December 2023 by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which suspects the university of having tolerated discrimination against Jewish employees. The federal agency requested a list of affected employees, but the university refused to cooperate, leading to a legal standoff.
Jewish associations on campus also publicly opposed this request, recalling that the forced collection of data on the Jewish community “recalls historical practices that exposed Jews to serious dangers.”
In his 32-page decision, Judge Gerald J. Pappert of the Federal District Court in Philadelphia found that the EEOC’s request “was part of a normal procedure in the investigation of discrimination.” However, he stressed that the university was not required to reveal the precise religious affiliation or affiliation with Jewish organizations of each employee. The university must nevertheless transmit targeted information on people likely to have been victims or witnesses of anti-Semitic acts by May 1.
“Although clumsily formulated, the request had an understandable objective: to identify employees of the Jewish community likely to have suffered or observed anti-Semitism,” ruled the judge, denouncing the comparisons with the Shoah made by certain speakers on the campus.
Since returning to the White House, the Trump administration has stepped up its actions against anti-Semitism on college campuses, including filing complaints against Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles.
