Penn challenges Trump admin’s demand for personal info of Jewish employees
(JNS) — The University of Pennsylvania stated in a district court filing on Jan. 20 that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s demand to hand over personal information of the university’s Jewish employees as part of the EEOC’s Jew-hatred investigation is “extraordinary and unconstitutional.”
In November, the agency accused the university of obstructing its investigation of the university’s handling of antisemitism. The EEOC stated that the university refused its request to identify the victims and witnesses of alleged antisemitic incidents. It sought a subpoena to obtain that information.
Penn’s 28-page filing in the U.S. District Court opposing enforcement of the subpoena, a copy of which was obtained by JNS, states that the university has cooperated with the agency for more than two years. Its only cause of contention is “the EEOC’s extraordinary and unconstitutional demand” for personal information on the university’s Jewish employees.
This demand includes the university providing a list of the names of Jewish employees and their “personal home addresses, phone numbers and emails,” as well as any affiliations they may have with Jewish entities.
“The EEOC insists that Penn produce this information without the consent — and indeed, over the objections — of the employees impacted while entirely disregarding the frightening and well-documented history of governmental entities that undertook efforts to identify and assemble information regarding persons of Jewish ancestry,” the filing states.
Michigan has to be more clear about how, why its assistant attorney general left, Jewish groups says
(JNS) — National Jewish organizations called for the state of Michigan to be more clear about the nature of Zena Ozeir’s departure from the state government after JNS reported on Jan. 20 that she is no longer an assistant Michigan attorney general.
“No public office holder should be engaging in this kind of hateful and inciteful rhetoric,” Daniel Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS.
“There is an obligation on the part of the Michigan attorney general’s office to make clear precisely what prompted her departure from such an influential public position,” Mariaschin said.
After JNS reported that Ozeir still listed her job as current on LinkedIn, she changed her profile to state that she is an “assistant attorney general” but that her job in that capacity at the Michigan Department of Attorney General ended in January 2026.
The office of Dana Nessel, Michigan attorney general and a Democrat, told JNS on Jan. 20 that Ozeir does not currently hold that position. “Zena Ozeir is no longer employed by the Michigan Department of Attorney General,” Kimberly Bush, Nessel’s director of public information and education, told JNS.
JNS asked if Ozeir was let go, and if she was, if it was due to the state probe of social media posts, in which she appeared to direct expletives at America and Israel. Nessel’s office didn’t respond to those questions.
Outgoing NJ governor pardons Moshe Glick for role in 2024 altercation outside synagogue
(JNS) — As Phil Murphy prepared to turn over the reins of New Jersey state government to his successor on Jan. 20, the outgoing governor pardoned Moshe Glick, who faced charges for his role in an altercation at an Orthodox synagogue in 2024.
Glick was one of 148 people granted clemency on Murphy’s final day in office before Mikie Sherrill took the oath of office as New Jersey’s 57th governor.
“I am profoundly grateful and relieved to share that the baseless charges brought against me by rogue prosecutors in Essex County have been dropped in my favor,” Glick said in a statement, which Yeshiva World News published.
“What began as an act of defending a fellow Jew from violent assault outside our synagogue has ended with the truth prevailing,” he added in the statement.
Glick was indicted after a violent confrontation outside Congregation Ohr Torah in West Orange with anti-Israel protesters. Inside the building was a real estate fair offering property for sale in Israel, a memorial service for a rabbi and a Torah sermon.
In September, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil complaint under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act against those protesting the synagogue.
The complaint described a mob ignoring police warnings to stay away from the synagogue and descending onto the building’s grounds, blowing vuvuzelas to disrupt the proceedings and then confronting organizers of the event.
Andrew Tate insists he wasn’t really singing Ye’s ‘Heil Hitler.’ Others who were with him are doubling down.
(JTA) — A group of far-right influencers caught on tape singing along to the Ye song “Heil Hitler” has been split on how to respond to the allegations of antisemitism that have followed.
“Manosphere” brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate have distanced themselves from the footage, though not from the influencer who was filmed performing a Nazi salute.
Others have doubled down or flouted the criticism. Myron Gaines, who did the salute, posted a video in which he was dressed as an Orthodox Jewish man, wearing a tallit, fake beard and black hat, and dancing to a song with the lyrics, “Oy vey, the goyim know, time to shut down the entire show.”
The split responses come days after a video of the influencers alongside Sneako, Clavicular, Justin Waller and the avowed antisemite Nick Fuentes ignited controversy and recriminations in Miami. The group was on camera during an hours long live stream that included multiple plays of Ye’s song — once during a drive to a Miami nightclub, and again inside the club.
In a podcast appearance on Jan. 20, Andrew Tate absolved himself of blame, pointing out that he was not dancing or repeating any of the song’s lyrics, which include the phrase “Heil Hitler” repeated numerous times.
“I didn’t want to go to the club, I said I don’t want to go, I said this is bulls–t, they said it’s Nick [Fuentes’] first-ever time, and I truthfully believed I could get in and out of this dump in 15 minutes,” Tate said on Jan. 20.
Jewish leaders express outrage after Josh Shapiro reveals that Kamala Harris team asked if he’d been ‘Israeli agent’
(JTA) — Jewish groups responded with outrage on Sunday amid revelations that Josh Shapiro, the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania, says he was pressed intensely about his relationship to Israel when being considered as Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024.
Shapiro writes that Harris’ vetting team asked him if he had ever been “a double agent” for Israel or had ever engaged with undercover Israeli agents.
“I wondered whether these questions were being posed to just me — the only Jewish guy in the running — or if everyone who had not held a federal office was being grilled about Israel in the same way,” Shapiro writes in “Where We Keep the Light,” a political memoir set for release next week that multiple news organizations obtained this weekend. He said he told Harris’ vetting team that the questions were offensive.
Jewish leaders echoed that criticism on Monday, saying that pressing Shapiro on his Israel connections reflected antisemitic tropes that have been used to malign Diaspora Jews in the past.
“The more I read about Josh Shapiro’s treatment in the vetting process, the more disturbed i become. The questions to him, I repeat, are why they needed a Special Envoy on antisemitism,” tweeted Deborah Lipstadt, who held that role in the Biden administration. “These questions were classic antisemitism.”
