This week, StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on behalf of Jewish and Israeli students enrolled in George Washington University’s (GW) professional psychology program. The complaint details persistent antisemitic actions by Professor Lara Sheehi, one of the facilitators of the program’s mandatory diversity course.
During the fall 2022 semester, Sheehi regularly singled out Jewish and Israeli students for their identity. In one case, Sheehi invited a guest speaker who referenced antisemitic stereotypes about Jews being deceitful and power-hungry. Sheehi even endorsed using violence against Israeli civilians. When some students complained about the antisemitism they were encountering in the classroom, Sheehi denied the allegations and asserted that these students were actually guilty of targeting other identity groups.
Gaslighting isn’t Sheehi’s only talent. She also appears to be a victimhood-peddling savant. On her LinkedIn page, Sheehi claims 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.” Try making sense of that academic word salad. Suffice it to say she enjoys making life miserable for anyone she deems an “oppressor.”
Sheehi retaliated against the students who spoke out against her by disparaging them to other faculty members and subjecting them to groundless disciplinary proceedings after they brought her inappropriate behavior to the attention of university administrators.
Sadly, yet unsurprisingly, GW did little to support the students. Instead, the university allowed the professor’s retaliatory proceedings to continue. This is nothing new from GW, a school that seemingly prides itself on indifference to antisemitism on campus.
As the British historian Paul Johnson observed, “hatred of Jews is not only irrational, it is self-destructive.” GW is harming its own reputation by failing to stand up for its Jewish students and allowing its faculty to engage in bigotry against one group.