Yale University said a prominent computer science professor will not teach classes while his conduct is reviewed, after newly released documents showed he sent Jeffrey Epstein An email describes a college student as a good-looking blonde while recommending her for a job.
Letters between David Gelernter – who made headlines in 1993 when he was injured in the explosion of a letter he had sent “Unabomber” Theodor Kaczynski – He was the disgraced late financier Among the treasure From documents related to Epstein published by the US Department of Justice in late January. Documents show Gelernter and Epstein corresponding on a variety of topics including business and art.
In an email to Epstein in October 2011 — several years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl — Gelernter wrote that he was considering an “editor” for the job — a Yale senior he described as a “pretty-looking little blonde.”
Gelernter defended this message in an email he sent last week to Jeffrey Brock, dean of Yale University’s School of Engineering. & Applied Sciences, according to the Yale Daily News, which reported that Gelernter also sent the email to the student newspaper.
He noted that Epstein was “obsessed with girls” — “like any single billionaire in Manhattan; in fact, like any other heterosexual male” — and had his “potential boss’s habits in mind.”
“As long as I didn’t say anything that insulted her in any conceivable way, I was going to tell him what he wanted one way or another,” the newspaper reported. Gelernter wrote to Brock. “She was smart and charming & Beautiful. Should I have suppressed that information? never!”
“I’m very glad I wrote the note,” he added.
Students in Gelernter’s computer science class were notified that he would not be teaching Tuesday.
“The university does not condone the action taken by the professor or his described style in making recommendations to his students,” Yale said in a statement. “The professor’s conduct is under review. Until the review is complete, the professor will not teach his or her class.”
Gelernter, 70, did not respond to emails and a message left on his phone list in public records. A letter was sent to Brock by Yale University’s Office of Public Affairs & Communications that provided the statement by the university. Yale declined to provide a copy of Gelernter’s email to Brock.
Gelernter joins a list of people in the United States and Europe, including prominent politicians, Facing scrutiny over Epstein files.
Chris Aziapor, a 21-year-old senior from Atkinson, New Hampshire, said students in his computer science class were somewhat surprised by his connections to Epstein and what he wrote in the emails.
“I think there was definitely an initial kind of shock wave, just because you know it seems ridiculous that one of your professors, like the person teaching you, could literally be in these Epstein files,” Aziapor said. “But I think what was most surprising to me was the way he was trying to defend his past words and past actions.”
In a letter to students on Tuesday, Gelernter again defended the emails he sent to Epstein, which he said were the reason he was suspended from teaching the class. The letter was first reported by Hearst Connecticut Media Group and later obtained by The Associated Press.
In the letter, Gelernter discussed his 2011 email to Epstein about the college student, saying he was recommending her for a summer job at Epstein’s private bank and that she wanted the recommendation. He said he and the student did not know at the time that Epstein was a convicted sex offender.
“The university’s Smoking Gun is a private personal email extracted from the dumps of Epstein’s files,” Gelernter wrote. “(If someone handed you a bunch of other people’s private correspondence, would you dive in and read it? Of course not. Gentlemen and ladies don’t read each other’s mail. (Courtesy 101.))”
In 2008 and 2009, Epstein served prison time in Florida after pleading guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a person under 18. He died by suicide in a prison cell In 2019, while he was awaiting trial in New York on US federal charges accusing him of sexually assaulting dozens of girls.
On the faculty at Yale since 1982, Gelernter is best known for his work in parallel computation—the use of multiple computer operations to solve complex problems—and his help in developing the Lynda computer programming system, starting when he was a doctoral candidate in the late 1970s. His 1991 book, “Mirror Worlds,” was a nod to the World Wide Web and inspired the Java programming language, according to his biography posted on Yale University’s website.
On June 24, 1993, he was severely injured in his stomach, chest, face, and hands when he opened a package that exploded in his office at Yale University. Authorities later determined that the package was sent by Kaczynski, who ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others.