George Washington University has one of the largest Jewish student populations in the United States. So it might surprise you that the Washington D.C. private school is yet again caught in an anti-Semitism scandal.
Actually it should not; the most anti-Israel schools — Columbia, Cal-Berkeley, Univ. Michigan — also have large Jewish populations. By comparison, there are no anti-Semitic crusades at the 1,500-student Presbyterian college around the block from me.
While showing a class two paintings of the Prophet Muhammad is now deemed bigoted and causes your termination, the current state of higher education apparently deems constructing an entire course on anti-Semitism is “academic freedom.”
Last week, the pro-Israel advocacy organization, StandWithUs, filed a noble complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on behalf of Jewish and Israeli students enrolled in GW’s professional psychology program.
The complaint elucidates persistent anti-Semitic actions by Prof. Lara Sheehi, who also specializes in “anti-oppressive theories" and calls herself "anti-fascist." She facilitates the program’s mandatory course, and last semester, Sheehi regularly singled out Jewish students simply for their identity.
Sheehi also invited a guest speaker who used anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews being deceitful and power-hungry. A Palestinian Arab activist, Sheehi took to Twitter three years ago to call Israelis "fucking racist." When students complained about her bigotry they encountered in the classroom, Sheehi predictably denied the allegations and, like any dishonest gaslighting goon, claimed the students were guilty of targeting other identity groups.
So much for "safe spaces" on campus.
“It’s been a really bad year for Jews at GW,” a student told the Jewish Journal. “It’s clear that events like the one in my class are related to the string of horrific antisemitic incidents at GW: desecration of a Torah scroll, folks chanting [and] promoting the intifada, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Sheehi is open about her hate and lunacy. She proudly claims in an academic word salad that she “works on race and white supremacy, decolonial struggles as well as power configurations in class and gender constructs and dynamics within Psychoanalysis. She practices from a trans-inclusive feminist and liberation theory model.”
Reports show Sheehi also retaliated against the students who spoke out against her by disparaging them to faculty members and giving them unwarranted disciplinary proceedings after they reported her aberrant behavior to university administrators.
Unsurprisingly, GW’s feckless administrators refused to support the students. Instead, the university allowed the professor’s despicable retaliatory proceedings to continue.
“Anti-Semitism has become a normal and accepted feature of these universities, as far-Left faculty and student leaders peddle anti-Semitic lies. It is the only acceptable form of “academic freedom” universities allow now,” Zachary Faria wrote Friday in the Washington Examiner. “Anti-Semitism runs deep in universities' rotten culture...this will bleed into the rest of society as well unless people who actually oppose discrimination and hate stand up and address it.”
GW has been rife lately with anti-Semitism and their insouciance to this disease is beyond hypocritical. Their reputation is now one of failing to stand up for its students by allowing racist left-wing faculty members to discriminate against one ethno-religious group. Their school’s namesake — perhaps the most indispensable American in history — would be ashamed.
The legendary historian Paul Johnson, who died last week at age 92, once opined that “hatred of Jews is not only irrational, it is self-destructive.”
Will Jewish parents continue to spend over a quarter-million dollars in tuition alone for four years of brainwashing at the GW cesspool?
A.J. Kaufman is a correspondent for several U.S. newspapers, websites and magazines — from Minnesota and Ohio to Tennessee and Virginia. He taught school and served as a military historian before beginning his journalism career. The author of three books, he is also a guest on various radio programs and contributes to Israel National News and The Lid.