Penn’s antisemitism case dismissed by U.S. education department, citing a lawsuit containing same allegations
The department said it took the action because a suit with the same allegations was filed in Philly federal court and would result in the same relief if a violation were found.
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The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has dropped an investigation into antisemitism allegations at the University of Pennsylvania, though it doesn’t really have to do with the merits of the case.
The department said Wednesday in a statement to The Inquirer that it “dismissed” the case because a complaint was filed last month by two Penn students in federal court with the same allegations as the complaint that was filed with the department.
“The relief sought is the same as would be obtained if OCR were to find a violation regarding the allegation(s),” a department spokesperson said.
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Penn said in a statement that it confirmed the complaint filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a nonprofit aimed at advancing civil and human rights of Jewish people, had been dismissed. The center filed the complaint in mid-November, alleging that Penn had failed to address harassment and discrimination against Jewish students in September, October and November.
On Dec. 5, two Penn students, senior Eyal Yakoby, a political science and modern Middle East Studies major from Princeton, and freshman Jordan Davis, sued Penn in U.S. Federal Court in Philadelphia, claiming the school had become “an incubation lab for virulent anti-Jewish hatred, harassment and discrimination.”
The university has failed to protect its Jewish students against that hate, the lawsuit alleges.
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“Penn enforces its own rules of conduct selectively to avoid protecting Jewish students from hatred and harassment, hires rabidly antisemitic professors who call for anti-Jewish violence and spread terrorist propaganda, and ignores Jewish students’ pleas for protection,” the suit said.
Beth Gellman-Beer, regional director of the education department’s Philadelphia Office for Civil Rights, told Penn in a Jan. 2 letter announcing its decision to dismiss the case that it had reviewed the lawsuit, and although it was not seeking class-action status, it seeks “systemic relief.” Gellman-Beer also said that her office could resume the investigation after the court proceedings.
“The allegation(s) may be re-filed with OCR within 60 days following the termination of the court proceeding if there has been no decision on the merits or settlement of the allegation(s),” she wrote.
Penn is among dozens of colleges and K-12 schools facing inquiries since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The department this week noted that it was opening an investigation at Temple University in North Philadelphia. Drexel, also in Philadelphia, and Lafayette and Muhlenberg Colleges in the Lehigh Valley also face probes.
In announcing the first round of investigations in November, the department said schools that do not address the office’s findings could lose their federal funding. The department states on its website that opening an investigation “in no way implies that OCR has made a determination with regard to the merits of the complaint.”
The complaint against Penn and education department scrutiny followed months of discontent on the Ivy League campus following the Palestine Writes Literary Festival, which was held there in September and which some critics said included speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks.
Penn also experienced several antisemitic acts last semester, including the drawing of a swastika inside Meyerson Hall and vandalism at Penn Hillel. The university also faced a backlash from donors, who said the university wasn’t doing enough to respond to the concerns.
In November, then-Penn president Liz Magill rolled out a plan to combat antisemitism, including a task force that is expected to issue its report this spring, and a student advisory group on the Jewish student experience. Magill resigned last month after an uproar over her congressional testimony on antisemitism on campus.
Magill testified that it was a “context-dependent” decision when asked whether calling for the genocide of Jewish people was a violation of the university’s code of conduct.