Penn Wins Dismissal of Antisemitism Suit by Jewish Students

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against University of Pennsylvania filed by Jewish students over antisemitism, ruling they failed to show the Ivy League school engaged in intentional discrimination.

US District Judge Mitchell Goldberg ruled Monday in a case by students who sued two months after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, claiming the Philadelphia school fostered a hostile environment that left them feeling unsafe in class or crossing the campus. One of the students, Eyal Yakoby, appeared at a press conference with House Republican leaders.

They sued under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federally funded programs from intentionally discriminating based on ancestry, race, ethnicity or national origin. The law also bars deliberate indifference to discrimination. But the suit failed to allege facts “showing either intentional discrimination or deliberate indifference on the part of Penn,” Goldberg ruled.

“I could find no allegations that Penn or its administration has itself taken any actions or positions which, even when read in the most favorable light, could be interpreted as antisemitic with the intention of causing harm to the plaintiffs,” he wrote. “At worst, plaintiffs accuse Penn of tolerating and permitting the expression of viewpoints which differ from their own.”

An attorney for the students called the judge’s decision “wrong.”

“The court incorrectly held that Penn has to have engaged in antisemitic conduct to be liable under Title VI but that is not so; the test is whether a university is ‘deliberately indifferent’ to protecting Jewish students against antisemitism,” Marc E. Kasowitz said in a statement. “There is a colossal divide between the court’s view of the allegations and the realities of what Jewish students at Penn have been forced to endure.”

A spokesman for Penn declined to comment.

The Penn dismissal comes as Harvard University faces harsher penalties related to claims of antisemitism on campus. While it settled lawsuits filed by Jewish students, it has endured sustained attacks by President Donald Trump, who seeks to push the oldest and richest US university to crack down on antisemitism, remove perceived liberal bias and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Trump’s administration has frozen about $2.6 billion in federal funding to Harvard, moved to bar international students, threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status and cancel its remaining federal contracts. Harvard has sued separately over the funding freeze and the foreign student ban. A federal judge has temporarily halted the foreign student ban.

The Trump administration also canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing an inadequate response to complaints of antisemitism.

Goldberg, the chief judge in Philadelphia federal court, also dismissed claims by the students of breach of contract and violations of the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. He said the students could refile their complaint on the Title VI and contract claims, noting the problems in those areas could potentially be resolved.

But he cautioned lawyers for the students to avoid “language which is unnecessarily inflammatory and ‘impertinent,’ and immaterial allegations that have virtually nothing to do with the claims which plaintiffs are endeavoring to raise.”

Photo: Students on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. Penn was sued by a pair of students who claim the campus was a hotbed of antisemitism even before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.