Three years after Hamas's October 7, 2023 terror attack, and despite the meaningful reforms and accountability achieved through The Lawfare Project's legal actions against universities across the country, Jewish students continue to endure harassment, intimidation, and violence on American college campuses.
Today, The Lawfare Project, together with co-counsel Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of Sophie Shabot, a Jewish American and Israeli citizen who was subjected to relentless Jew-hatred and physical assault while studying at Parsons School of Design at The New School.
Sophie was targeted. The New School looked the other way.
Following October 7, Sophie was:
Physically blocked, shoved, and spat on while trying to enter a campus building. Targeted with vicious slurs, including “Zio bitch,” “baby-killer,” and “genocidal maniac.” Pursued through the streets by protesters screaming Jew-hating abuse after a campus event was violently disrupted. Surrounded and driven from campus simply for speaking Hebrew with friends. Targeted by a bottle thrown at her head, missing her by inches. Forced to endure vandalism and repeated intimidation in the spaces where she studied and worked.
Sophie repeatedly reported what happened to professors, security personnel, administrators, the Office of Student Conduct, and the Office of the President. She identified those responsible and provided photographs and video. The response was not protection.
In one instance, after Sophie reported an assault to more than twenty administrators, only two responded—and both suggested that she seek therapy. The administration accommodated her harassers instead of protecting her. The New School even rewarded some of the students involved.
After an unauthorized campus encampment, the university's then-president gave participants $300 for dinner, publicly praised them, and posed for a photograph—including with a student who had spat on Sophie.
When protesters blocked Jewish students from entering a campus building, the university did not remove the protesters. Instead, Jewish students were told to use another entrance.
Jewish students should never be the ones forced to change their behavior because others choose to target them. This lawsuit is about accountability. |
