This is bad news indeed. The Trump administration, in its ongoing campaign to harass institutions of higher education in the U.S., demanded a list of Jews from the University of Pennsylvania. The university, as well as Jewish groups, objected.
The Trump regime says it is combatting anti-Semitism on campus and wants to collect evidence. The university believes this is an intrusion into private and personal information.
What reason is there to trust the good faith efforts of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice? Under current leadership, it has tossed aside all efforts to defend the rights of historically marginalized groups. It fights DEI and any programs that are intended to help Blacks, Hispanics, women and LGBT individuals. The leader of the Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, has devoted her career to fighting civil rights law.
Frankly, their sudden obsession with anti-Semitism is likely to cause an explosion of anti-Semitism. Maybe that’s their goal.
As a Jew, I say to the Trump regime, “No, thank you.” I don’t want my grandchildren in your census. It stinks.
The New York Times reported on a federal judge’s decision to let the Trump thugs collect the information they want.
The Trump administration was within its rights to demand that the University of Pennsylvania turn over information about Jews on campus as part of a federal investigation into discrimination at the school, a federal judge decided Tuesday.
The government’s investigation had united Penn leaders with Jewish students and faculty members as they opposed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s subpoena. Many on campus drew parallels between the government’s approach and methods deployed in Nazi Germany.
But the Trump administration has said that its request was typical for discrimination investigations to seek potential victims and witnesses, and Judge Gerald J. Pappert of Philadelphia’s Federal District Court agreed on Tuesday. He gave Penn until May 1 to comply with the administration’s subpoena, though the ruling appeared unlikely to quell the debates around how the administration has pressured top American universities.
In his ruling, Judge Gerald J. Pappert of Philadelphia’s Federal District Court said Penn “relies on two federal-court opinions which hurt, not help, its position.”
Judge Pappert, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, appeared to hint at the discomfort that the government’s subpoena had prompted and at the accusations that the E.E.O.C. had gone too far with its tactics, especially a demand for information tied to groups “related to the Jewish religion.”

That’s unbelievable. What’s next a yellow star?
LikeLike
YES!
LikeLike
Let’s think about this for a moment. We can’t show a slavery exhibit because it’s considered too divisive, but we can count and report Jews at U Penn. But it’s not considered divisive? Every time the right invents a new rule, it just shows how petty and divisive they are.
LikeLike
What possible legitimate reason could this administration have to demand a list of Jews on a college campus? It’s preposterous and pernicious to claim to do this to combat anti-semitism. Do they not know that this conjures the lead-up to the Holocaust? Trump should look to his enablers to understand what real anti-semitism is. It is now officially 1984.
LikeLike
Thank you, Sheila.
Like you, I think that it’s an outrage for the government to demand a list of anyone of any faith. Will they be listed by birth or by practice? Half-Jewish? Quarter-Jewish? Orthodox? Conservative? Reform? Jewish but atheist? One drop of blood?
Nothing good will come of this. Who is next? Muslims? Catholics? Seventh Day Adventists? Jehovah’s Witnesses?
LikeLike
I agree, Sheila. A target on the backs of Jews. Is it not enough that partner-in-crime (albeit one waiting for day in court, which isn’t the case for 47) NetanYAHOO has bloodied Jews all over the world w/his relentless war-mongering (like the 47-created war on Iran)–the gift that keeps on giving…to him.
& was anyone else thinking as I was–why was 47 doing a network-wide speech on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover, at a time when people would be engaged w/families & friends in reading the story of exodus?
Why wasn’t 47 w/Ivana, Jared, grandchildren et.al. celebrating this holiday as a family?
We all know we would have been better served had this been the case.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They probably want to reach out to individual students to compile a record of antisemitism that they will use to justify new controls over the university.
LikeLike
FLERP,
Instead of asking for a list of anyone who is Jewish, the feds could have sent out a blanket notice inviting everyone to attest to any verifiable instances of antisemitism, racism, or other hate crimes.
Are you Jewish if you are half-Jewish, one-quarter Jewish, one-eighth Jewish, etc. If you are Jewish but non-practicing, or if you were born Jewish but converted to a different religion.
The more permutations I think of, the more this demand sounds irregular and offensive.
LikeLike
These people are basically evil.
LikeLike