Nate Neustadt. (Photo credit: Alexandra Tauber)
Nate Neustadt is a Jewish student leader through and through.
The sophomore at George Washington University got involved in GW for Israel as soon as he stepped foot on campus — he is now the president of the student organization. Because of Neustadt’s history of Jewish leadership roles, he figured serving as the president of a student group was inevitable in college.
“When I got to campus, I kind of just assumed it would eventually happen, just knowing who I was,” the Washington, D.C., resident said.
During his early childhood in Bozeman, Montana, Neustadt wasn’t surrounded by many Jewish people. Then, he and his family moved to San Diego when he was 6 years old, where he was raised in a “Reform, borderline-Conservative” Jewish household.
Neustadt attended a Jewish day school from fifth to eighth grade. “We would have Torah study classes … We would learn and dissect and debate, and then learn some more,” he recalled.
He was heavily involved in his local chapter of BBYO, and served as president of the Southern California region of the Jewish youth organization.
“Being Jewish was always something that was very central to who I was as a person,” Neustadt said.
His high school experience also lent itself to his Israel advocacy, entrenched in what he described as a “very, very antisemitic” environment. “I always just grew up fighting for that, being the advocate that the bunch of Jewish students needed at my school,” he said.
Neustadt interned with StandWithUs, an international Israel education organization, during his senior year of high school.
“I think that’s really what gave me the training to then do what I’m now able to do,” he said. “The minute I got to GW, I was put in touch with the board members of GW for Israel, and I started from there and got involved. So it was always something that I knew I would be a part of.”
As president of GW for Israel, Neustadt leads a board of 10 students who cover a cultural and educational team and a political arm. “What’s very unique about us — and we can get to do this since we’re an organization in D.C. — we have a political arm called RevPAC,” he said.
Launched in January 2024, RevPAC members lobby on Capitol Hill and sometimes influence legislative policy.
“Our reach as an organization isn’t just on campus — it’s also to the halls of Congress, which I think is pretty amazing,” Neustadt said.
He also takes the safety of fellow members seriously.
“Since [GW for Israel] is a bit of a controversial organization on campus, I work very closely with the school’s administration to make sure anything we do is safe and that we have security and that the administration itself is also supporting us Jewish students,” Neustadt said. “I’m in constant contact with our dean of students … I’ve had multiple conversations with the president of our university, Ellen Granberg, about everything going on on campus.”
He said he’s been satisfied so far with the support he’s received from the university administration, so much so that he is drafting an op-ed for the school newspaper, The Hatchet, countering an article that claimed that GW’s administration doesn’t do enough for its Jewish students.
Neustadt stays busy, between double majoring in international affairs and international business and interning for Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick — where he’s the only Jewish staffer in the office.
“When things pop up about Israel or about what’s going on currently in the Middle East, or if we’re meeting with some lobbyists from a Jewish organization, I’m usually the one that they also bring into the meeting, just to be there as well [as to] answer questions coming from a different perspective,” he said.
Neustadt also serves as the rush chair of GW’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity, and an Emerson fellow with StandWithUs.
In addition to his leadership roles, Neustadt makes time to stay involved in the Jewish community as a member of Chabad GW.
“Being part of the Jewish community is something that’s very, very important to me,” Neustadt said.
When searching for colleges, he specifically looked for campuses with robust chapters of Hillel and Chabad and a large Jewish student population.
“For me, just being involved is just of utmost importance,” Neustadt said. “I think having a Jewish community wherever you are is so incredibly important because you know that you have your people that you can fall back on if something happens, or you’re around people with shared histories and shared stories and something else you can bond over.”
Neustadt often takes involvement a step further.
“I like to take leadership roles,” he said. “I like to do more than just being involved. So it’s about being involved, but also helping foster the Jewish community as well.”
He looks forward to continuing his work leading GW for Israel, combating the anti-Israel rhetoric he sees on campus, and maintaining a close relationship with the GW administration to ensure Jewish safety on campus. Neustadt is also leaving in May to study abroad at Tel Aviv University for a year.
“I’m looking forward to continuing my work here on campus, and then getting out of here in May, then coming back a year later and restarting where I left off,” he said.