{"id":313805,"date":"2026-08-04T22:12:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313805\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T22:12:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:12:57","slug":"first-look-at-nyu-student-accused-of-raising-swastika-flag-at-campus-site-dedicated-to-jewish-donor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313805\/","title":{"rendered":"First look at NYU student accused of raising swastika flag at campus site dedicated to Jewish donor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the first look at the preppy NYU student from Connecticut <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/03\/us-news\/nyu-student-arrested-in-nazi-flag-raising-incident-during-graduation-event-cops\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">accused of raising a flag bearing two swastikas next to a Star of David at a campus building<\/a> dedicated to a Jewish donor.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander Stepnowsky, 23, wore a baby-blue button-down shirt and tan khakis to his routine preliminary Manhattan court hearing Tuesday in his hate-crimes case stemming from the disturbing May incident.<\/p>\n<p>The pupil hoisted the troubling banner \u2014 which also included a New York University logo and was designed to look like one of the prestigious school\u2019s purple-and-white flags \u2014 during this year\u2019s graduation festivities, prosecutors claim.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander Stepnowsky on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. Stepnowsky, an NYU student, was arrested and charged with hate crimes in connection with raising a swastika flag over a campus building. (Steven Hirsch 2026) Steven Hirsch for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>A flag with a Jewish star, New York University branding, and a swastika is seen flying atop the NYU Steinhardt Building on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.  CBSNews New York<\/p>\n<p>The Fairfield resident admitted to the conduct, claiming he raised the flag because he was upset with how NYU handled political issues around Israel, law-enforcement sources told The Post.<\/p>\n<p>Stepnowsky has pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary and criminal trespass as a hate crime, as well as first-degree aggravated harassment. <\/p>\n<p>Alexander Stepnowsky is pictured on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. (Steven Hirsch 2026) Steven Hirsch for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>The banner was raised above the NYU building named after a billionaire donor to Jewish causes during a graduation week event. Yezen Saadah\/Washington Square News<\/p>\n<p>He was previously released on his own recognizance and is due back in court in October.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>NYU officials said after Stepnowsky\u2019s arrest that they were investigating the \u201cheinous\u201d episode and considering a range of punishments, including Stepnowsky\u2019s expulsion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here is the first look at the preppy NYU student from Connecticut accused of raising a flag bearing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[3862,2803,10685,60,75,84,83,57,9,24,63,22460,58],"class_list":["post-313805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-antisemitism","tag-court","tag-hate-crimes","tag-israel","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyu","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}