A fourth-year New York University student was arrested in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan on Tuesday and charged with hate crimes for

Antisemite of the:

Holding Antisemites Accountable.

Report an incident

Home / New York University Student Charged With Hate Crimes for Raising Swastika Flag Over Campus Building

New York University Student Charged With Hate Crimes for Raising Swastika Flag Over Campus Building

June 4, 2026

A fourth-year New York University student was arrested in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan on Tuesday and charged with hate crimes for allegedly raising a swastika flag over a campus building during a graduation-week event last month.

Alexander Stepnowsky, 23, of Fairfield, Connecticut, has been charged with burglary as a hate crime, criminal trespass as a hate crime, and two counts of aggravated harassment, according to the New York City Police Department.

CBS News reported that, according to police sources, Stepnowsky told law enforcement officials that he was frustrated by “NYU’s involvement with Israel’s political issues.”

However, the suspect pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday, and the judge released him without bail. He’s set to return to court in August.

According to law enforcement officials, surveillance cameras recorded Stepnowsky entering the building on whose roof he planted the swastika flag. He reportedly used a keycard to gain access to it, an action which likely generated a time stamp and other identifying information.

“The symbols that were represented are antisemitic and hateful to every person of conscience,” NYU senior public relations official Wiley Norvell said on Wednesday in a statement responding to Stepnowsky’s arrest. “This appalling act violated our sense of community and solidarity. In addition to criminal proceedings, we will immediately pursue our disciplinary procedures, which carry the most severe consequences.”

Designed to counterfeit NYU’s official purple and white standard, the offensive display featured two swastikas flanking the Star of David in a blue and white color palette representing the state of Israel. Historically, similar illustrations and symbols signal belief in antisemitic conspiracies of Jewish power and control, and in recent years anti-Zionists at NYU have castigated the university’s academic partnerships with Israel, as well as its efforts to combat antisemitism.

“This was not a prank, political statement, or act of free expression. Swastikas are among the most universally recognized symbols of antisemitic hatred and genocide, and displaying them alongside Jewish symbols was a deliberate act intended to intimidate and target Jews,” said Liora Rez, chief executive officer of StopAntisemitism, a Jewish civil rights advocacy group. “Alexander Stepnowsky should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Commencement events at universities have become a forum for anti-Zionist activists to disrupt the proceedings and advertise their views.

Last year, New York University withheld the diploma of a Gallatin School of Individualized Study student who, according to the school, “lied” to the administration about the content of his commencement speech to conceal its claim that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a falsehood parroted by both jihadist terrorist organizations and neo-Nazis. New York University promptly denounced the student.

Days later at George Washington University, one of its students, Cecilia Culver, not only uttered the same claim but added that her school’s hands are stained with “blood.”

George Washington University noted that Culver had been “dishonest” too and banned her from campus. The university also stripped Culver of her status as a “distinguished scholar.” Culver, whose misstep cost her a job Ernest & Young, moved to sue the university for “defamation” and “retaliatory suppression of her protected expression.” The suit added that her “professional reputation in the economics and policy community in Washington, DC and beyond … cannot be remedied.”

Faculty have hijacked commencement ceremonies as well.

Last month, a University of Michigan professor used his commencement speech to praise pro-Hamas activists, dozens of whom participated in a destructive wave of protests that scarred Jewish students and prompted the intervention of the federal government. University president Domenico Grasso later denounced the remarks for having “deviated” from what university faculty Senate chair Derek Peterson had submitted for review before taking the stage and violated the institution’s commitment to neutrality on divisive political issues.

Anti-Zionist activists and student groups are losing steam and the power to shock, however. The final weeks of the academic year saw them try and fail several times to initiate mass demonstrations.

At Occidental College in Los Angeles, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) “peacefully” took down an encampment it established in April to protest the institution’s financial ties to Israel after school officials rushed to the scene to take names and issue disciplinary referrals.

At Smith College in Massachusetts, SJP activists last month were granted a meeting with high-level officials at a later date in exchange for the group’s ending an unauthorized encampment established on campus to protest the board of trustees’ decision to reject a proposal inspired by the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2026/06/04/new-york-university-student-charged-hate-crimes-raising-swastika-flag-campus-building/

0 Likes

Previous PostHouston Prep School Head Resigns After Antisemitism Row