“I Don’t Want to Work for a Jew”

"Not interested in working for a Jew." That's what a Cornell student wrote back to Gabe Einhorn's company, two weeks after applying for a summer internship. Gabe, 24, wears a kippah proudly in every video he posts online. He never expected hatred like this to find him.

Gabe and his brother Aiden started a company called VryfID, a real estate service that sets up renters with landlords. They worked tirelessly to get the company off the ground.

Aiden, a senior at NYU, tapped into his university connections to find interns from campuses who might be interested in working for them.

The brothers posted summer internship opportunities on the hiring platform Handshake and got a lot of interest: 120 people applied.

Aiden and Gabe Einhorn

A Cornell student named Austin Franco applied and was on of the 60 applicants chosen for an interview. Franco never responded. Aiden followed up a few times to try to coordinate but didn’t get any response.

Two weeks later, Franco wrote on Handshake: “Not interested in working for a Jew.”

Aiden saw the response and was shocked. “Gabe, you gotta check this out. This is crazy!”

For the past year, Gabe had been posting on social media and proudly wore a kippah in all his videos. This was the first time he had encountered online hatred. “I’m Jewish. I wear a kippah and am very proud of it. It was never a second thought. Never a problem for me.”

A scene from one of Gabe’s videos

One thing multiple people advised Gabe when he started working in real estate was to never talk about politics or religion.

Gabe had no problem staying away from politics, but a huge part of his side hustle—and his identity—is talking about religion.

Gabe has a clothing brand called Prays; he takes different quotes from Tanach (Scriptures) in English and prints them on the back of his shirts. He also creates a videos series where he walks around NYC interviewing people from all walks of life and religions about their faith. He has interviewed famous athletes and celebrities, all while wearing his kippah.

“I never directly pushed any agenda or was an activist. I was someone building a real estate company. I never encountered hate online until this point.

“I thought to myself, If you’re going to hate me because I am Jewish, I’m going to be even more proud of it—and I started pushing back.”

Gabe wanted to expose the blatant antisemitism he experienced but decided not to reveal the Cornell student’s name.

Overnight his phone exploded with both positive and negative messages. Everyone had a different opinion. Some said the story was not true. Some tried to find out the kid’s name. Others told Gabe to expose the boy’s name. All sides were fighting with each other over this post.

Within a couple of hours, Franco wrote back:

“I have not had a positive experience with Jews and that’s why I don’t want to work for Jews.”

No apology. No regret. Just hatred toward a collective people because of one bad experience.

Franco’s reply created a flood of messages of people vehemently against Gabe. Radical white supremacists were writing, “Kill the Jew.”

A GoFundMe page was created for Franco to support him in his “resistance” against Jews.

Posts included remarks like, “This guy stood up to Jews. He should be rewarded.”

People started coordinating campaigns to gather Gabe’s information and attempting to destroy his business and his family’s safety.

“Last week was really tough,” Gabe said in an Aish.com interview. “Probably the worst week of my life. I was scared for my personal safety and our business. We had to have police patrol outside our house and NYPD involvement.”

Despite the threats, Gabe recognizes that a lot of positive things have come from it.

“So many Jews around the world—people I don’t even know—have reached out to support us and our business financially and emotionally. As Jews, we are so connected and we look out for each other. There are so many people I’ve never met before who reached out to support. We are a small but strong nation.”

After the wave of media attention, Gabe is staying focused on building his business.

“We pre-verify renters through credit checks and basic screening, then matchmake them with landlords and apartments that fit their profile.”

They plan to use AI and matchmaking to turn it into a full marketplace. “We plan to launch aggressively in New York within the next 4-6 weeks.”

Meanwhile, Gabe is dismayed that Franco was rewarded for his “resistance against the Jews” with $25,000.

Gabe expressed, “We see major politicians, especially here in NYC, with huge platforms being openly antisemitic and still being voted in. Today, it feels easy to say whatever you want, even if it’s false or wrong. For many young people, social media is their news. If the videos they see tell them Jews are evil, and that’s all they consume, that becomes all they know. Then they see kids being rewarded for this behavior, which only encourages more of it.”

Gabe believes that the more you lean into your identity, feel proud, connect, and build with people, the better your life becomes.

“If we lean into who we are and recognize how strong and connected we are, there is nothing to fear. Combatting antisemitism starts with education. We have to know our history and understand our religion.”

Students in public schools often enter college without knowing how to respond or engage when these issues come up. They are left sitting silently—or sometimes become self-hating.

“Basic education matters. Not everyone can afford Jewish day school but every child should have some sort of Jewish education early in life, so they know who they are and where they come from.”

In a moment that could have made him stay quiet and hide, Gabe chose to push back and lean into his Jewish pride. Not to become consumed by hate, but to become more rooted in who he is. Prejudice and hate may make some noise but identity, community, and conviction build something that lasts.