Cornell Student Rejects Job Interview With Antisemitic Message to Jewish Founders

A 19-year-old Cornell University student sparked outrage in the United States after allegedly responding to a job interview invitation with an explicitly antisemitic message. Austin Franco had applied for a summer internship at VryfID, a New York startup founded by two Jewish brothers, and when they contacted him through Handshake to schedule a Zoom interview, he replied: “I am not interested in working for a Jew. Thank you.”

The message was sent to founders Gabe and Aiden Einhorn. Gabe, 24 and the company’s CEO, initially posted a screenshot on X while masking Franco’s name, saying he wanted to raise awareness of rising antisemitism. “I did not feel comfortable exposing him,” he said, adding that he thought it might have been a mistake or not a reflection of Franco’s true views.

The next day, Franco doubled down. In a post on X, he said 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 backlash spread widely online, and Cornell said it had opened a review. A university spokesperson said the school “condemns antisemitism and all forms of hate and discrimination in the strongest possible terms.”

According to a LinkedIn profile since deleted, Franco studied labor and employment relations at Cornell. The message came about a month after the end of the academic semester. VryfID was founded in summer 2025 by the Einhorn brothers, who say the platform links renters and landlords through identity verification meant to reduce fraud. Gabe said renters pay $20 for verification and receive apartment matches, while landlords use the service to find suitable tenants and fill vacancies. He said he frequently encounters antisemitic content online and has received threats, including five death threats on Facebook.