A Jewish Israeli-American student has sued The New School in Manhattan, alleging she endured years of antisemitic harassment and intimidation that university officials failed to stop. The Lawfare Project filed the suit on behalf of Sophie Shabot, a student at the school’s Parsons School of Design, timing the filing to the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
According to the Lawfare Project, Shabot was subjected to repeated name-calling, intimidation and physical obstruction because of her religion and her support for Israel. The group says she was called slurs including “Zio b—-” and “baby killer” and was at times blocked from entering the University Center.
The lawsuit also describes a 2024 incident in which protesters allegedly vandalized and disrupted a Hillel event featuring an Israeli speaker. Shabot was reportedly among several Jewish students who were trapped in a dean’s office while a group of protesters tried to force them to hand over the speaker.
The Lawfare Project claims New School administrators not only failed to intervene but at times “rewarded those responsible” for the harassment.
“There is no question in my mind that the New School violated its Title VI obligations and other obligations under the law in not intervening and taking meaningful action to stop the antisemitic, anti-Israeli harassment that my plaintiff endured while she was at the New School,” said Ziporah Reich, the Lawfare Project’s director of litigation, who filed the suit.
Reich said Jewish students frequently bore the consequences of harassment rather than the students responsible for it.
“If the pro-Hamas protesters are essentially threatening your physical safety when you’re trying to have a Jewish event, let’s just shut down the event to make sure you’re safe. When a group of pro-Hamas protesters occupy a space in which you’re supposed to have an event, let’s just move you somewhere else to a smaller, less accommodating place. In other words, she was bearing the brunt of the consequences for the negative harassment of the offenders,” Reich said.
Reich also addressed the timing of the filing, on the third anniversary of an attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and saw more than 250 people taken captive.
“It’s extremely important for the Jewish community to recognize that what happened immediately after Oct. 7 didn’t end immediately after Oct. 7 because the harassment of Jewish students and Jews everywhere has continued and even if it has lessened to some extent in certain universities, it has not gone away. It’s essentially in a quiet period where we know that at any minute it can rear its ugly head again. These students are activists without a cause,” Reich said.
The lawsuit brings claims under federal Title VI law, New York state and city civil and human rights statutes, and separate claims for breach of contract and negligent infliction of emotional distress. It seeks damages, statutory penalties, attorneys’ fees and costs, and demands a jury trial.
A spokesperson for The New School, Will Wilbur, told Fox News Digital: “The New School does not tolerate antisemitism. We are dedicated to maintaining a campus environment where students can learn and grow free from harassment or discrimination of any kind.”
This is not the first such complaint against the Parsons School of Design. In 2025, the Dhillon Law Group sued on behalf of graduate Brandon White, who alleged the school opened a disciplinary investigation against him after he reported harassment, while those who targeted him faced no consequences.
The New School was also among the universities where anti-Israel demonstrations escalated after the Oct. 7 attacks. In 2024, protesters occupied the school’s Welcome Center in Manhattan to pressure the board of trustees into voting on divestment from companies tied to Israel, amid two separate encampments on campus — one organized by students and one by faculty.
