Staff Reports
The Handshake message from a Cornell student — “Not interested in working for a jew. Thanks.” — blew up online and sparked the kind of moral panic we promised ourselves we’d never fall into again. The pause button should have been hit: we can condemn antisemitism without turning a short, private exchange into a national witch hunt or a courtroom of social media armchair judges. Instead, the story shows how fast outrage spreads, and how easily good instincts about due process and decency get tossed aside by both sides.
What happened on Handshake and why it went viral
A Cornell undergraduate replied to a startup’s interview request on Handshake with an openly antisemitic line. The startup’s co‑founder posted a screenshot to social media, it went viral, and Cornell labeled the message a bias incident and referred it to the university’s Office of Civil Rights. Platforms and campus administrators responded swiftly, saying they would investigate under their policies. That is the narrow, verified chain of events — and it does deserve scrutiny and consequence.
Why institutions reacted the way they did
Universities and career platforms are on high alert for antisemitism. Recent campus surveys and watchdog reports have put Jewish student safety and antisemitic incidents at the front of administrators’ to‑do lists. When a private message reads like a hate crime, officials rush to act to reassure vulnerable students and protect the school’s reputation. Those responses are predictable — and understandable — given the climate on many campuses.
Don’t let righteous outrage become mob justice
That said, viral outrage has costs. It magnifies one short message into a life‑changing event. It can also misfire. A claim that a Texas attorney with the same name was widely misidentified in this episode could not be independently verified by mainstream reporting. If we are going to be the side that champions free speech and due process, we must stop reflexively piling on and amplifying every screenshot without facts. Condemn the antisemitism. Also demand evidence before wrecking someone else’s life.
A conservative warning: learn the lesson we once knew
We must condemn antisemitism and protect students. But we must also remember the ugly taste left by previous years when mobs and government overreach punished people for unproven allegations. If conservatives want to be the party of liberty and fair play, we need to call out hate and resist the temptation to become the very cancel culture we used to criticize. That means measured responses, respect for due process, and a refusal to treat every viral post like final judgment. Otherwise, we lose both our moral high ground and the culture war we keep promising to win better than the other side.
