BREAKING: Lawfare Project files lawsuit against Carnegie Mellon University on behalf of Jewish student

Today, The Lawfare Project filed a lawsuit against Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the Western District of Pennsylvania on behalf of a courageous Jewish student. The student, who was subjected to pervasive anti-Jewish discrimination during her tenure at the university, filed numerous complaints with the school’s administration, all of which went unresolved. The lawsuit was first covered by Bloomberg.

Carnegie Mellon is a known recipient of foreign funding. As of 2021, it had received over half a billion dollars from Qatar. Through anti-discrimination lawsuits like this one, The Lawfare Project aims to shed light on the lack of transparency that exists at universities that receive foreign funding, in order to advocate for legal reforms that require greater accountability.

The CMU student’s exposure to the university’s antisemitic environment began in her freshman year when she was denied an excused absence to attend a memorial service following the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre. Her experience culminated during her last year, when she was told by her instructor, after creating a model to depict how an Orthodox Jewish community turned a public space into a private one for religious purposes, that it would have been better had she done her project on “what Jewish people do to make themselves so hated.” The student’s complaints to the DEI and Title IX offices yielded nothing and her appeal to professors for help brought retaliation in the form of exclusion and an undeserved near-failing grade.

The pervasively toxic environment found on college campuses across the country, which, in many instances, has been funded by Qatar, has resulted in illegal discrimination against Jewish students. The Lawfare Project is proud to be representing a brave student willing to stand up for Jewish civil rights and we will make every effort to ensure that justice is achieved.