What appeared at first glance to Barnard College employees to be a fake text scheme inquiring whether they were Jewish was confirmed Wednesday by school administrators as a legitimate government text message.
The eyebrow-raising text message hit the personal cellphones belonging to numerous current and past employees on Monday with a survey link “that looked, at first, like a scam,” according to the New York Times.
“The text said it was from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, part of a review of the employment practices of Barnard. A link led to a survey that asked respondents if they were Jewish or Israeli, and if they had been subjected to harassment,” the Times said.
It was all part of what appears to be “part of an aggressive new tactic by the Trump administration to collect reports of alleged antisemitism at Barnard, a women’s college affiliated with Columbia University that has come under heavy criticism for pro-Palestinian demonstrations on its campus,” the report stated.
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While Barnard’s general counsel Serena Longley told staff in an email that “participation in the survey is voluntary,” some at the college still found the questionnaire troubling.
Debbie Becher told the Times she found it “a bit terrifying” to her as a Jew that the federal government “wants to know who the Jews are through some text message and Microsoft Office form.”
“Clearly, it made everyone scared,” said added. “I’ve been getting text messages from my former graduate students and other faculty members — I still am — asking what they should do.”
“We’ve seen this movie before, and it ends with yellow stars,” added Nara Milanich, a Barnard history professor. She told the Times the survey “reminded her of her research into 1930s Italy, when lists of Jews were put together by the local government.”
What was also troubling to her was that the Trump administration appeared to be “fishing for reports of antisemitism,” according to the Times.