Yale Professor Recommended ‘Good-Looking Blonde’ Student To Epstein, But Has No Regrets

Last Updated:February 12, 2026, 11:59 IST

Messages between David Gelernter and the late sex offender were among the Epstein-related documents released by the US Justice Department in late January.

Yale University has said a prominent computer science professor will not teach classes while it reviews his conduct after newly released documents showed he sent Jeffrey Epstein an email describing an undergraduate student while recommending her for a job.

Professor’s emails found in Epstein Files

Messages between David Gelernter and the late sex offender were among the Epstein-related documents released by the US Justice Department in late January. The correspondence covered topics including business and art.

In an email sent in October 2011, several years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, Gelernter wrote that he had an “editoress" in mind for a job. He described the Yale senior as a “v small good-looking blonde".

Gelernter’s defence

According to the Yale Daily News, Gelernter later wrote to Jeffrey Brock, dean of Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science, defending the message. He also forwarded the email to the student newspaper.

He wrote that Epstein was “obsessed with girls" – “like every other unmarried billionaire in Manhattan; in fact, like every other heterosex male" – and said he kept “the potential boss’s habits in mind".

“So long as I said nothing that dishonored her in any conceivable way, I’d have told him more or less what he wanted," Gelernter wrote. “She was smart, charming & gorgeous. Ought I to have suppressed that info? Never!"

He added, “I’m very glad I wrote the note."

Yale’s response to professor’s links with Epstein

Students in Gelernter’s class were informed that he would not be teaching. Yale said in a statement that it does not condone the action taken by the professor or his manner of providing recommendations for students. The university confirmed his conduct is under review and that he will not teach until the review is completed.

Gelernter did not respond to emails or a phone message. A message to Brock was returned by Yale’s Office of Public Affairs & Communications, which provided the university’s statement. Yale declined to share a copy of Gelernter’s email to Brock.

Student reaction

Students expressed shock at the links to Epstein and the contents of the emails. Kris Aziabor, a 21-year-old senior from Atkinson, New Hampshire, said what surprised him most was Gelernter’s defence of his past words and actions.

In a message to students, Gelernter again defended his emails. He said he was recommending the student for a summer job with Epstein’s private bank and that she wanted the recommendation. He wrote that neither he nor the student knew at the time that Epstein was a convicted sex offender.

In 2008 and 2009, Epstein served jail time in Florida after pleading guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from someone under 18. He died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York on federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls.

Gelernter, 70, has been on Yale’s faculty since 1982. On June 24, 1993, he suffered severe injuries when he opened a package that exploded in his Yale office. Authorities later determined it was sent by Theodore Kaczynski, whose bombing campaign killed three people and injured 23 others.

News world Yale Professor Recommended ‘Good-Looking Blonde’ Student To Epstein, But Has No Regrets

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