Cornell Student Sparks Outrage After Refusing to Work for Jewish Founders

A Cornell University student triggered a backlash in the United States after rejecting a summer internship interview at a New York startup with an openly antisemitic message. The applicant, 19-year-old Austin Franco, had applied for the role, and when the company reached out to schedule a Zoom interview, he replied, “I am not interested in working for a Jew. Thank you.” The message was sent directly to the founders, brothers Gabe and Aiden Einhorn, through a job-search platform.

Gabe Einhorn, the company’s 24-year-old CEO, posted a screenshot of the exchange on X and said, “Sad world.” He said he shared the case to draw attention to what he described as a worrying rise in antisemitism in the United States. At first, he blurred the student’s name because he thought it might have been a mistake or a reckless remark. “I did not feel comfortable exposing him. I thought maybe he made a mistake and maybe he does not really believe it,” he said.

The next day, Franco appeared to stand by the statement. In a post on X, he repeated his extreme views and wrote that his experiences with Jews had been “unpleasant,” both in person and online. He added that he had also had “positive experiences,” but claimed they were “not the majority.” The incident drew widespread reaction online and prompted Cornell to announce a formal review.

A university spokeswoman said Cornell “condemns antisemitism and every form of hatred and discrimination in the strongest terms.” Einhorn also said he regularly encounters antisemitic content and threats online and described the anonymity of social media as a tool that lets people spread hate without consequences. “I have seen terrible things of every kind, including antisemitic content,” he said, adding that the last time he checked, he had five death threats on Facebook. He said the direct nature of Franco’s message left him and his brother stunned: “We just looked at each other and said, ‘What?’”