Jewish Israeli student sues Chicago art school for anti-Semitism
Shiran Canel, a Jewish Israeli student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, filed a lawsuit claiming the school is 'a place of hostility towards Israelis and Jews.'
She claims that a professor created an assignment 'uniquely targeted at Shiran' that featured images showing Israeli soldiers abusing Gazan civilians.
A Jewish Israeli student from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is suing the institution for anti-Semitic conduct.
Shiran Canel’s lawsuit blames the school for being “a place of hostility towards Israelis and Jews” and claims that, in her admissions interview, she was “subjected to the harassing inquisition of a single faculty interviewer who showed no interest in her academic qualifications and questioned her ability to work collaboratively alongside Arab and Palestinian classmates.”
Though Shiran was initially denied admission to SAIC, she fought the decision, and was eventually admitted to the school. The lawsuit, however, alleges that SAIC’s investigation into the matter was “kept secret.”
SAIC has “long tolerated, cultivated, and promoted animus towards Jews and Israelis” and specifically targets Israelis “for a particular hatred, scrutiny, and dehumanization that is extended to no other group or country,” enacting discrimination that is “overwhelming” and “multi-faceted,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also states that after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, “SAIC’s campus came alive with hatred,” and that one professor described “Israelis as ‘pigs’ and ‘irredeemable excrement’ who should ‘all rot in hell.’”
Since the Oct. 7 attack, the lawsuit claims that Shiran “has endured an endless tide of hatred, discrimination, and exclusion” and that SAIC has “condoned and facilitated” this behavior.
“Students used the bulletin boards in SAIC’s hallways to post banners accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza (with no regard for the definition of that word) and created flyers on SAIC letterhead parroting pro-Hamas propaganda and notifying the student body about anti-Israel protests, lectures, and other activities,” and SAIC officials did not respond to Shiran’s worries over this hostile environment, according to the lawsuit.
One claim in the lawsuit notes that professor Sandie Yi introduced an unexpected modification to the final assignment of her Material and Media in Art Therapy class.
The lawsuit states that the new assignment was “uniquely targeted at Shiran,” and asked students to review images that included a “collection of drawings all of which pertained exclusively to the Israeli military and Israeli soldiers engaged in seemingly senseless violence against Gazan families and children, even smiling while shooting.”
Picture taken from Shiran Canel v. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Sandie Yi.
Picture taken from Shiran Canel v. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Sandie Yi.
Campus Reform has contacted the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Professor Sandie Yi, and the attorneys representing Shiran Canel for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
