A federal lawsuit has been filed against the union representing legal aid attorneys in Nassau County charging it violated state and federal law by attempting to expel members who filed their own lawsuit temporarily blocking the union from passing a “blatantly antisemitic” resolution about the Israel-Hamas war.
The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York on behalf of Ilana Kopmar, Diane T. Clarke, and Isaac Altman—employees of the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County—by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law against the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA), Amalgamated Local Union 2325, a part of the of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, and a number of union officials.
The wronged members have also filed a discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The United Auto Workers (UAW) and its president, Shawn Fain, are also under investigation by an independent federal monitor for antisemitism for its handling of the ALAA’s issues.
“Zionism is integral to Jewish identity, but plaintiffs—proud unionists who have dedicated their professional lives to serving poor and disadvantaged clients—didn’t need to be Zionists, or in one case, even Jewish, to understand that antisemitism is antithetical both to their obligations as lawyers and to the mission of a union responsible for representing the interests of all its members,” said Rory Lancman, director of corporate initiatives and senior counsel at the Brandeis Center, in a prepared statement. A former New York City councilman and state assemblyman, he is handling the case for the center.
The case against the union alleges its resolution passed shortly after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, is “a cornucopia of classic and modern antisemitism,” including denying Israel’s right to exist and the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, blaming Israel for police misconduct in the United States, charging Jewish ALAA members have a dual loyalty to Israel and the United States, demonizing Israel by accusing it of genocide, and resolution opponents of favoring of that genocide.
It also accused ALAA employers who have come out against the resolution of being influenced by “Jewish donations.”
The union resolution was denounced as being antisemitic and unrepresentative of their values by a host of non-profit legal aid service providers employing ALAA members, including the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, the Legal Aid Society serving New York City and the New York Legal Assistance Group. Additionally, the Bronx Defenders issued a statement condemning a similar antisemitic statement by its chapter of the ALAA.
Since the terrorist attack against Israel, “ALAA’s communication channels and governance became permeated with antisemitic hatred of the Jewish state of Israel and exhilaration at the maiming, torture, burning, raping, kidnapping and murder of nearly 1,500 men, women, children, the elderly, and the disabled,” states the suit, which contains dozens of quotes from the union’s Gaggle listserv mail system filled with hateful antisemitic lies and rhetoric. “This mixture of fury and glee culminated in the Resolution being drafted and rushed to the membership for a vote, compelling plaintiffs to seek and obtain a temporary restraining order against finalizing the vote.”
The trio and a fourth union member initially succeeded in state Supreme Court in Nassau County in getting a temporary restraining order blocking a “1,147-word diatribe,” and “model of modern antisemitism,” which included only a seven-word mention of the “the violent tragedy on Oct. 7, 2023,” on the grounds the ALAA violated its duty of fair representation and would unethically undermine clients’ trust in their lawyers’ ability to represent them regardless of their Jewish identity or views on Israel, among other issues.
That order was extended once by the court until the union moved the case to federal district court where it was dissolved after the UAW International Executive Board passed a resolution mourning “the loss of life in Israel and Palestine [and] solidarity with all workers and our common desire for peace in Palestine and Israel,” and called for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages, and the basic rights of all people to be restored.
After that, the vote proceeded, with over a third of the ALAA’s membership voting “no” and half not voting at all. With the resolution passed, the plaintiffs voluntarily withdrew their lawsuit since it was moot. It was then that retaliatory actions began, states the suit. They were subject to hateful messages calling them “Zionist ghouls” and “the lamest of the lame” and “genociders.”
They were slated to be brought up on trial on charges unbecoming a union member under the constitution of the UAW, which would have resulted in expulsion. They appealed to the UAW board, which last month affirmed the charges, resulting in “chilling of plaintiffs’ full exercise of their anti-discrimination union rights,” states suit.
One of those involved in the lawsuit, Ilana Kopmar, was among four speakers appearing before a hearing on union antisemitism held July 9 by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Kopmar told the committee she was a Zionist who strongly believes the right of the Jewish people to self-determination is “as integral to my religious practice as is keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath. Most American Jews share this belief that Zionism is integral to their religious faith.”
That anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric has become more and more commonplace in unions since Oct. 7, said Glenn Taubman, a staff attorney at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, who also testified before the committee.
“It is heartbreaking for me as a Jewish-American and as a Zionist to have my phone ringing off the hook every single day since October 7 by students, workers, teachers, legal aid lawyers, doctors, saying, ‘How do I get out of this?’” he said.
Kopmar said the AALA created a “hostile antisemitic work environment” for Jews and their non-Jewish allies, giving members just three days notice before calling for a vote for its resolution, which the union claimed called for a ceasefire and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but which Kopmar said actually called for Israel’s defeat, “dehumanizes the hostages by not mentioning the mass rape and murder of Jews, Israelis and Americans and violently abducted men, women and children.
“It’s a one-sided vitriolic attack using antisemitic trope,” she said and added the four individuals involved believe it will interfere with their ability to “zealously represent our Jewish and Israeli clients” and contributes to an already hostile antisemitic environment in the union.
She criticized the UAW for allowing the retaliatory charges to proceed without considering the members’ legal arguments and noted if they hadn’t appealed that decision to the UAW Public Review Board, jury selection for their expulsion trial would have begun that night. After they filed their federal lawsuit, antisemitic rhetoric against them intensified and they were called “fascists,” told they should “kill themselves,” witnessed Nazi symbolism on Gaggle and were told Zionists should be kicked out of the union, while a resolution to free the hostages was downplayed and laughed at and was “overwhelmingly” voted down. AALA leadership was present at the meeting, “but did nothing to tamp down the hatred and vitriol.”
The next day a paid AALA staff member emailed the membership characterizing the hostage release resolution as being proposed by a “small Zionist minority attempting to disrupt the AALA “and blamed Zionists for collaborating with the congressional committee to weaken the union, testified Kopmar.
“The union is tearing itself apart,” she said. “Union leadership has a duty to protect its members from bias and discrimination, not foster attacks on Jewish and non-Jewish Zionist members.”
Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.
