Date: 04/27/2025
Source: The Intercept
URL: https://theintercept.com/2025/04/23/trump-eeoc-barnard-columbia-texts-jewish/
Source: New York Times
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/nyregion/barnard-faculty-eeoc-text-jewish.html
Details:
From New York Times: The personal cellphones of dozens of current and former Barnard College employees pinged Monday evening with a text message that looked, at first, like a scam.The text said it was from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, part of a review of the employment practices of Barnard. A link led to a survey that asked respondents if they were Jewish or Israeli, and if they had been subjected to harassment. After faculty members asked Barnard administrators about the text, the college confirmed to them on Wednesday that the messages were authentic — part of a federal investigation into discrimination against Jewish employees that started last summer.
The texts, which faculty members said appeared to have gone to nearly all Barnard staff members, appear to be part of an aggressive new tactic by the Trump administration to collect reports of alleged antisemitism at Barnard, a women’s college affiliated with Columbia University that has come under heavy criticism for pro-Palestinian demonstrations on its campus.
[A Barnard history professor] said it reminded her of her research into 1930s Italy, when lists of Jews were put together by the local government. “We’ve seen this movie before, and it ends with yellow stars.”