Georgetown’s famous School for Foreign Service, many of whose graduates go on to work for the United States State Department in the foreign service, just hired (and in record time) suspended a vicious antisemite to be the primary source of contact for students on “everything academic.”

It was quite a bold move, hiring Aneesa Johnson. Not only was she grossly unqualified for the position–most of her work experience was as a school counselor–but she is an open and vicious antisemite. And in that there is no ambiguity–she is not just a critic of Israel’s policies, but called Jewish women “dogs.”

Shameful @georgetownsfs @Georgetown @georgetownmsfs @joelhellman_SFS pic.twitter.com/M7MZ6Z0SDf

— Rachel Jessica Wolff🇮🇱 (@RachelJessWolff) November 2, 2023

Georgetown is about as prestigious as it gets when it comes to educating people interested in foreign affairs and diplomacy. Having had no interest in such matters since my early college career, I haven’t kept up with the goings-on there so I have no educated opinion on the current quality of the education one receives there.

I do, however, have a strong opinion regarding their hiring practices: making an unqualified antisemite your primary point of academic contact for students is a pretty stupid move, Georgetown. Let’s hope your graduates are a bit more perspicacious than your hiring committee.

It was a Georgetown student who discovered Aneesa Johnson’s history after getting an email earlier this week about the new hire. She decided to look her up and discovered her troubling social media history, which, although Johnson had scrubbed it, was archived.

It didn’t take much digging.

UPDATE: Aneesa Johnson has been placed on administrative leave. @georgetownsfs claims it was not aware of her background, which I have a hard time believing when it’s the first thing that comes up when you Google her name. https://t.co/QLZE9BxyKp pic.twitter.com/yyjJoWEIx3

— Rachel Jessica Wolff🇮🇱 (@RachelJessWolff) November 2, 2023

Johnson, the former school counselor, wasn’t hired to be a janitor or something unrelated to academics. The position had responsibilities that included the hiring of faculty.

The MSFS Assistant Director of Academic and Faculty Affairs provides academic advising and faculty affairs administration for 250+ US and international students and 100+ full-time and adjunct faculty members in the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program.

They serve as a member of the MSFS curriculum committee and provides program administration as needed in coordination with the Director of Academic and Faculty Affairs. These activities include managing course scheduling, tracking student progress to degree, and providing internship and career-related services in coordination with the SFS Career Center.

As well, they are the point of contact for and facilitate the hiring, onboarding, and training of adjuncts, other new faculty, and Practitioners in Residence – activities that include syllabi collection/review and tracking course evaluations.

One would think that Georgetown would take a minute or two to examine the background of the person they put in such an important academic position.

But you would be wrong. Canary Mission, which tracks people deeply involved in antisemitic activities, has an entire profile on her. Of particular note is her activity as a coordinator for Students for Justice in Palestine, which has in recent weeks heartily endorsed Hamas’ atrocities.

To its credit Georgetown responded quickly to the outcry, suspending Johnson within hours of the news hitting Twitter. I suspect that once Ilya Shapiro retweeted the news the temperature of the issue rose quickly.

Is this another example of an academic institution being a “safe space” for certain kinds of hate, or something a bit more benign if also troubling–incompetence?

It’s hard to say, although I lean toward the latter explanation. Throw in some DEI (she is a minority female and Muslim!) and you have a powerful incentive to hire Aneesa.

As you would guess, DEI is a very big deal at Georgetown.

In either case, Georgetown looks awful. Either the School of Foreign Service is so ignorant and incompetent that they hired a Jew-hater to be the primary point of contact for students, or they are so tolerant of Jew-haters that they did so.

Maybe this is why our foreign policies are so stupid…the people educating our diplomats are dunces.