Three Incidents in One Week Put Antisemitism on the American Left Under a Microscope

What Happened

Three separate incidents involving antisemitism surfaced in recent days, each touching the political left in different ways.

First: Austin Franco, a 19-year-old Cornell University student studying industrial and labor relations, applied for a summer internship at VryfID, a New York City startup that pairs renters with landlords. When co-founder Gabe Einhorn, 24, reached out to schedule a Zoom interview, Franco replied via the job board Handshake with eight words: "Not interested in working for a Jew. Thanks."

Einhorn posted a screenshot to X, initially blacking out Franco's name. "I felt bad exposing him because I thought he could have made a mistake," Einhorn told the New York Post. Franco removed the doubt himself. The next day he posted on X: "My experiences with Jews have not been pleasant, both in person and online. This is not to say I haven't had positive experiences, but on the aggregate that is not the case."

Cornell confirmed it is investigating. The university's spokeswoman told the Post: "Cornell condemns antisemitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination in the strongest possible terms." Franco's LinkedIn profile has since been deleted.

The Shabbat Dinner

Separately, the guerrilla activist group Climate Defiance organized a Friday night dinner framed as a traditional Shabbat meal, tickets priced as high as $5,000 per person, according to the New York Post. The guest list included Linda Sarsour, the former co-chair of the Women's March and a vocal critic of Israel who was barred from entering Israel earlier this month; Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller who has been accused of fueling the BDS movement by divesting government funds from Israel bonds when they matured; Queens Democratic socialist Tiffany Cabán, who was arrested for protesting the Gaza war; and Abby Stein, a rabbi linked to New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

The dinner was held at the home of filmmaker Jill Goldman and celebrated a Tribeca Film Festival documentary on climate change. The invite specified "no phones, no cameras, no tech."

Tali Goldsheft of the "Politically Homeless No More" movement told the Post the device ban is the problem. "Why is this being done in secrecy? What is it that you're going to say that needs to be hidden from the public? Knowing who the players are, this feels like it's using Shabbat as a cover."

Lander's campaign and Climate Defiance had not issued public responses to those criticisms as of the time the Post published its report.

Maher Names the Problem

On Friday's broadcast of HBO's Real Time, Bill Maher addressed it more bluntly than most Democratic politicians have. Referring to failed Democratic House candidate Maureen Galindo, Maher said: "I guess she thinks she's progressive, because hating ICE, okay, check. And hating Jews, sure, that's progressive now."

Maher also took a broader swipe at a new category of voter he described as "intensely political, but somehow know almost nothing about politics," people fluent in conspiracy theories and memes but unable to articulate what makes someone liberal or conservative. His comments were reported by Breitbart.

The Strongest Counterargument

Critics of this framing have a legitimate point: antisemitism is not the exclusive property of any political movement. The deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, was carried out by a right-wing extremist. Neo-Nazi organizing in the United States is primarily a far-right phenomenon. Polling consistently shows antisemitic attitudes distributed across the political spectrum. Critics arguing that this week's coverage unfairly scapegoats the left while ignoring the right deserve a fair hearing.

Maher's critique is specifically about a recent drift, not a claim that the right has no antisemitism problem. The Franco incident involves a single college student whose political views are not established in the sourcing. The Shabbat dinner story is about political association and optics, not a proven act of hatred. None of the three sources establish that antisemitism as a whole is more prevalent on the left than the right. What they do establish is that prominent voices within the progressive coalition have faced credible, documented accusations of antisemitism without suffering meaningful political consequences.

What's Unresolved

Cornell's investigation into Austin Franco is ongoing with no announced timeline or potential penalties. The university has not specified what disciplinary process applies to a student whose conduct occurred off-campus, after the semester ended, and via a private job platform. That procedural question will determine whether the school's condemnation produces any actual consequence.