Spit on. Shoved. Chased out of a building for speaking Hebrew. And according to a new lawsuit, an Israeli American student’s university stood by and let it happen.
The Lawfare Project filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against The New School in New York City, accusing the university of failing to protect Sophie Shabot from a slew of violent incidents.
“F*ck you, b*tch,” protesters screamed while spitting on her and shoving her out of a building during a December 2023 protest.
In March 2024, a group of protesters trapped students, including Shabot, inside an event featuring an Israeli speaker and pounded on the doors, demanding the students “turn over” the speaker, the Lawfare press release states. A professor at the school then shoved a Jewish student guarding the door, and the university shut down the event, according to the complaint. Organizers had already secretly relocated due to security concerns.
The complaint alleges that a crowd “surrounded Shabot and her friends after hearing them speak Hebrew” and “drove them from the University Center while a security guard looked on in silence.” The complaint also claims a protester “hurled” a bottle at her head, nearly striking her.
Ziporah Reich, director of litigation at The Lawfare Project, said the school “looked the other way as she was subjected to appalling verbal and physical assault.”
Shabot said she is bringing the suit so “no other student has to endure what I did.”
“What happened to me should not be allowed to happen without accountability,” she added.
The suit demands a jury trial and seeks compensatory and punitive damages, statutory penalties, and other fees. The Lawfare Project is seeking relief under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the New York State Human Rights Law, the New York Civil Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, and the New York General Business Law, and asserts claims for breach of contract and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
If the suit moves to the discovery phase, The New School will need to turn over potentially tens of thousands of documents surrounding the case, allowing lawyers to diagnose possible structural failures at the university that created the permissive attitude toward discrimination against Shabot.
In May, the student senate voted to strip the campus Hillel of funding, the New York Post reported. Hillel is an organization that acts as a hub of Jewish student life on nearly 850 campuses in the United States.
“To continue to fund Hillel at the New School would mean that your student fees would be used to support violations of international law,” the student government statement says, referencing Hillel’s participation in certain programs.
The New School said the student government does not have the authority to strip the Hillel campus of its funding.
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