Demonstrators gather at The George Washington University in Washington, DC on March 21, 2025, to protest the war in Gaza. Photo: Bryan Dozier/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect

Earlier this month, students at my alma mater, George Washington University (GWU), walked across the graduation stage after a tumultuous four years of higher education.

As a former Jewish leader at the school, it’s been disheartening to watch as the situation has devolved, especially after the attacks of October 7, 2023.

While I was an undergraduate student at GWU from 2017 to 2021, I proudly led GW for Israel, beginning my journey as a freshman representative, then as director of cultural programming, and ultimately as President.

Even then, Jewish students faced bigotry on campus.

Back in 2021, in just one year, the school witnessed the desecration of a Torah scroll at Tau Kappa Epsilon house, a mezuzah that was stolen from a student’s door and returned damaged, and a professor who allegedly required students to analyze an antisemitic metaphor Hitler used to describe Jewish people as a cancer or infestation that must be terminated.

Unfortunately, since the Hamas atrocities against Israel on October 7, 2023, things have gone from bad to worse.

Antisemitism at GWU escalated quickly after the Hamas attacks. Just weeks after the bloodshed, amid the first demonstrations, the words “Glory to our martyrs” were projected on the library building. Not long after, a student entered the GWU Hillel building and began tearing down hostage posters.

When I returned to visit my alma mater, I should have been shocked by the normalized language of “intifada” found on stickers across campus. Sadly, it seemed that it was just part of the pattern.

In addition to the hateful demonstrations, an unauthorized encampment was established in April and May of 2024, organized by GW’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which also commemorated the October 7th attacks on the first anniversary of that tragic day.

The University’s unwillingness to act was on full display while encampment participants staged a “People’s Tribunal” that “charged” GWU President Ellen Granberg, the Board of Trustees, and Provost Christopher Bracey, before calling for them to be met with violence. Granberg ultimately requested support from Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department after acknowledging that GWU could not maintain order.

On August 12, 2025, the US Department of Justice determined that GWU was “in violation of federal civil rights law by acting deliberately indifferent to the hostile educational environment for Jewish, American-Israeli, and Israeli students and faculty,” finding that the university “took no meaningful action” in response to complaints.

Even after that rebuke, GWU appeared to have learned the wrong lesson, announcing on February 25, 2026, that it had hired Judge Loren AliKhan, who was overseeing an antisemitism lawsuit against the school, to teach a course on “an attorney’s ethical duties and discretionary judgment”; AliKhan initially denied any conflict before recusing herself in late April. Then, on April 27, GW for Israel (my old club) was hosting Israel Fest in Kogan Plaza when individuals dropped vials containing what the University later identified as stink bombs, leading to the reported injury of at least one student.

It is telling that the university was not forthcoming about the nature of the incident, and responded more than a week later. The delay raises serious questions about whether the administration treated the incident with appropriate urgency.

In my years at GWU, Israel Fest wasn’t without controversy. There would be a handful of students who would come and attempt to hand out fliers with false accusations against Israel and  antisemitic tropes, but they never crossed the line of successfully causing an incident.

This year’s attempted derailing of Israel Fest marks a dangerous new threshold. What began with Torah desecration and torn-down hostage posters has now crossed into an actual physical disruption, intent on shutting out a cultural celebration, resulting in an injured Jewish student.

This is the predictable endpoint of years of administrative inaction, and it should serve as a warning to GWU and every university in the country. Administrators need to wake up. Unless serious action is taken now, the cost of continued indifference will be measured in injured students, and Israel Fest will not be the last incident — or the worst.

GWU has an opportunity for its administration to make amends for past failures and to take a strong stand against antisemitism on campus. For too long, the administration has turned a blind eye to hatred targeting Jewish students. It is time for them to enforce university policy and protect their students.

Noah Shufutinsky is an educator, hip hop artist, and a graduate of The George Washington University where he majored in Judaic Studies. He currently serves as Associate Director of Global Education and Partnerships at StandWithUs, and releases music under his stage name Westside Gravy.