Who is Austin Franco? US student says he was ‘not interested in working for a Jew’

A summer internship application at a New York startup took a disturbing turn when a Cornell University student, 19-year-old Austin Franco, rejected an interview opportunity with a blatant antisemitic message. Franco told the company, VryfID, that he was "Not interested in working for a Jew. Thanks."

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Not interested in working for a Jew. Thanks.

VryfID, a startup focused on connecting renters with landlords and verifying identities to combat fraud, is run by brothers Gabe and Aiden Einhorn, who are Jewish. According to the founders, Franco had applied for a position on the firm's growth team. When the company attempted to schedule a Zoom interview via the job platform Handshake, Franco sent his offensive reply.

Gabe Einhorn shared a screenshot of the exchange on X, expressing his dismay. He later told the New York Post that he decided to publicize the incident to draw attention to antisemitism. Initially, he felt hesitant, considering the possibility of a mistake, but Franco's subsequent actions dispelled any doubt.

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Sad world.

A day later, Franco defended his comment on X, writing, "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." This statement prompted Cornell University, where Franco studies industrial and labor relations, to launch an investigation. A university spokesperson stated, "Cornell condemns antisemitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination in the strongest possible terms."

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I felt bad exposing him because I thought he could have made a mistake and he really doesn’t believe this wholeheartedly.

The incident has also highlighted VryfID, founded by the Einhorn brothers in 2025. Gabe Einhorn, who often speaks about his Jewish faith and wears a kippah, noted that while he has encountered hostility online before, Franco's message was unusually direct. "Me and my brother kind of looked at each other like, ‘What?’ We never really experienced [antisemitism] this directly," he said.

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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.