The College Fix

Hundreds of law firms warn aspiring lawyers: ‘Zero tolerance’

Academics, doctors, lawyers and others are losing their jobs – and more could find themselves struggling to get hired – due to antisemitic activism.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, many U.S. employers have grown increasingly wary about prejudice and hatred toward Jews. Some have issued warnings, and others have fired employees for making antisemitic remarks online.

“It only makes sense that displaying hatred or animus towards any minority will impact job prospects, because people want a hate-free environment,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told The College Fix.

In the realm of higher education, several Ivy League leaders have resigned after being criticized for not doing enough to stop antisemitism, most notably Liz Magill, the former president of the University of Pennsylvania.

Professors at Oberlin College and the University of Arizona also have been suspended or placed on administrative leave after commenting in support of Hamas, The College Fix and New York Post reported. And another at Wake Forest University resigned after a now-deleted pro-Hamas social media post.

Some employers are taking preemptive action.

Since October, more than 200 law firms have signed onto a letter to top law schools warning students that their firms have “zero tolerance” for antisemitism, according to information provided to The Fix.

“As employers who recruit from each of your law schools, we look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses,” the letter states.

The law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, whose Senior Chair Joe Shenker initiated the letter, declined to comment, but a spokesperson directed The Fix to an updated version of the letter, which now lists about 250 law firms.

In the letter, the law firms said antisemitic activities – including campus protests “calling for the death of Jews and the elimination of the State of Israel” – will not be tolerated in their workplaces.

While most universities have not commented publicly on the letter, Jim Rosenblatt, dean emeritus of Mississippi College School of Law, told The American Lawyer that they “will pay attention to it.”

Rosenblatt said he does not think law firms will stop hiring students from those schools, but they may start questioning new lawyers more about their activism in college.

Already, a New York University law student reportedly had a job offer revoked due to a comment blaming Israel for the Hamas terrorist attack, CBS News reported.

Individuals in the medical profession also have lost jobs.

Several doctors, including individuals from NYU Langone Health and Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute, are no longer employed there after the watchdog group Stop Antisemitism called out their support for Hamas on X, Newsweek reported in November.

“It’s startling how many doctors out there are unabashedly supporting Hamas,” StopAntisemitism told Newsweek at the time. “This makes a mockery of the Hippocratic Oath, which is not compatible with supporting terror groups.”

StopAntisemitism did not respond to several requests from The Fix this week asking if it is aware of other cases since then.

Whether the doctors were fired because of antisemitic comments is not clear. But others have been, including a California doctor who lost his job in October for making “disturbing, anti-Semitic comments” on social media, his former employer Expert MRI wrote on Facebook.

A Miami dentist also lost his job after videos showed him removing posters of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas, and Citigroup bank and the Illinois State Comptroller’s Office fired employees in October after they posted antisemitic comments on social media, according to CBS News.

Menken told The Fix that individuals should expect consequences for expressing hatred.

“It is now abundantly clear that the false narrative around Palestine is merely a pretense with which to dredge up classically hateful tropes about Jews and Jewish property. It’s a narrative of myths and demonization, and consequences are only to be expected,” he said.

MORE: Professor resigns after post sympathizing with Hamas massacre draws controversy

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