Powerful Union Browbeat and Retaliated Against Jewish Members, New Lawsuit Says

A powerful union for New York public defenders became a “cornucopia of classic modern antisemitism” in the months following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel, according to a lawsuit filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

Filed on Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the complaint accuses the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (UAW 2325) — reportedly the oldest such organization in the country — of passing a virulently anti-Israel resolution following Oct. 7 which made only a passing reference to Hamas’ atrocities and launched a smear campaign against Jewish members who opposed it. Since then, the union has filed “formal charges” against Jewish and Zionist members and is attempting to expel them from its ranks.

Antisemitic conduct in the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA) took various forms, the complaint alleges. Members commended Hamas’ violence, chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and denied that the terrorist group had murdered women and children. In one incident, someone allegedly asserted that Zionist beliefs would prevent Jewish attorneys from “zealously” defending Muslims, Palestinians, and Arabs and lead them to conspire against them and sabotage their cases.

“If they support Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people, why would they not have a reason to collude with prosecutors and other adversaries to deprive our clients of justice in the courts,” ALAA member Marlen Bodden wrote in an “officewide” email on Nov. 16.

“It is a legitimate question,” Monica Dula responded.

A ranking official attempted to stop the conversation from descending into a pitch and catch of antisemitic tropes, but the idea that Jews would work against their clients had been planted weeks earlier. On Oct. 13, Saara Ashid suggested that a Jewish attorney does not “stand up for Black and Brown folk in the same way,” according to the lawsuit. She added, “I’m starting to worry about all of your clients.”

By Nov. 17, ALAA was scheduled to vote on a resolution that the complaint describes as a “1,147 word diatribe against the existence of the Jewish state, replete with deceitful blood libels designed to arouse the most ancient antisemitic hatreds.” Resolved to stop it from taking place, several Jewish members, accusing the union of breach of contract and fostering a professional culture that would discourage Jews from seeking legal counsel from ALAA affiliated attorneys, sought and were granted a temporary restraining order which delayed the proceeding.

Angered by the ruling, their colleagues allegedly sought to expel them from the union entirely, with one member accusing them “of snitching behavior.” A volley of similar comments were launched in an email thread over the next several days, the lawsuit notes, with Emmanuel Garcia writing “if you are a snitch please do us a favor and kill yourself” and David Tobias commenting “careful, snitches are in this thread, they might snitch on you and air strike your home with your family in it.”

ALAA then moved to file charges against its Jewish members, accusing them of attempting to “interrupt a democratic process on an internal union matter” and violating the union’s “core” mission. The anti-Israel resolution has since been passed and a trial of the members is forthcoming.

“Antisemitism in a union isn’t any less objectionable than antisemitism on a college campus, in a public school, or at a workplace,” Brandeis Center chairman Kenneth Marcus said in a statement. “The Brandeis Center will hold accountable everyone responsible for trying to expel Jewish and non-Jewish members alike whose Zionism, sense of professional obligation to their clients, and basic decency compelled them to oppose the ALAA’s discriminatory and antisemitic practices, especially the ALAA’s profoundly antisemitic and destructive anti-Israel resolution that over a third of its members ultimately rejected.”

Andrew Lieb, managing partner of Lieb at Law — a firm partnering with the Brandeis Center to litigate the case — added, “No American should be retaliated against for fighting against what they sincerely believe is antisemitism and its consequences, which is why federal and local law clearly prohibit unions from conditioning union membership upon acquiescing to discrimination. We fight for all employees, of all religious faiths, who all have a right to be both true to their identity while also benefiting from unionization in leveraging concerted activity in negotiating optimal terms of employment.”

The plaintiffs in the case are seeking injunctive relief to prevent their expulsion from ALAA as well as unspecified damages resulting from emotional distress.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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