A Cornell University student who applied for a summer internship with a Jewish-owned NYC startup rejected the opportunity with a hateful message: ‘Not interested in working for a Jew,” the shocked CEO posted on X.
Austin Franco put his antisemitism on full display when he passed up an interview with VryfID because its co-founders Gabe and Aiden Einhorn are proudly Jewish.
Franco, 19, delivered the message to both brothers via job board site Handshake after applying for a summer role at the company, which pairs renters with landlords and verifies their identities to prevent fraud.
The Einhorns reviewed Franco’s application and he was being considered for an internship with VryfID’s growth team, which is tasked with attracting renters to the company.
“Sad world,” Gabe, 24, wrote on X Monday along with a screenshot of Franco’s jaw-dropping eight-word response to trying to schedule a Zoom call: “Not interested in working for a Jew. Thanks.”
Gabe Einhorn told The Post he felt obligated to share the message to raise awareness of growing antisemitism. He blacked out Franco’s name out of graciousness, but commenters quickly revealed his identity.
“I felt bad exposing him because I thought he could have made a mistake and he really doesn’t believe this wholeheartedly,” Gabe said.
But the ivy leaguer soon made it clear that he meant every word of what he wrote.
The student who hails from Virginia doubled down in an X post shared the next day.
“My experiences with Jews have not been pleasant, both in person and online. This is not to say I haven’t had positive experiences, but on the aggregate that is not the case,” Franco wrote.
Cornell — where Franco studies industrial and labor relations, according to his since-deleted LinkedIn profile — is investigating the incident. He sent the disgraceful message on Monday, about a month after Cornell’s semester ended.
“Cornell condemns antisemitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination in the strongest possible terms,” a university spokeswoman told The Post.
Gabe and his younger brother Aiden, a 22-year-old NYU business student, launched VryfID in the summer of 2025.
“Instead of renters struggling to search for apartments and getting rejected, we have them sign up, pay $20 to get verified. Then we actually bring them apartments that they actually qualify for,” Gabe explained to The Post.
“For landlords, it helps them fill up their units and brings them the right tenants.”
Aside from content centered around the NYC rental market, Gabe, who wears a kippah, often speaks about his faith across his growing social media platforms.
“I’ve seen some terrible things across the board — antisemitic things and just terrible things in general,” Gabe said, adding that he had about five death threats just on Facebook the last time he checked.
“People just like to spread hate across social media because they’re anonymous and they have no repercussions.”
The hateful message has left the brothers stunned.
“Me and my brother kind of looked at each other like, ‘What?’ We never really experienced [antisemitism] this directly,” Gabe said.
“The whole thing was just very shocking and uncalled for.”
Franco did not return requests for comment. His father, Alexander, a patent attorney, declined to comment.