Brandeis Center Client Testifies at Congressional Hearing on Anti-Semitism in Labor Unions

Brandeis Center Client Ilana Kopmar, a Nassau County Legal Aid attorney and member of UAW Local 2325, the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA), testified in front of Congress on July 9, 2024, at a hearing on anti-Semitism faced by labor union members held by the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee. 

Ms. Kopmar recounted her experience as a Jewish member of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, the anti-Semitic hostile environment within the union that focused relentless on attacking the Jewish state of Israel and its supporters, and efforts to expel her and three other ALAA members for opposing the union’s anti-Semitism. 

“Zionism, the belief in the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in our ancestral homeland is as integral to my Jewish identity as keeping Kosher or observing the Sabbath,” Kopmar stated. Her testimony proceeded to explain how her Jewish identity was suppressed. 

Ms. Kopmar also referenced a resolution adopted by the ALAA weeks after October 7, 2023,  that amounted to a 1,147-word diatribe against the existence of the Jewish state, wherein the Hamas massacre, a pogrom unrivaled since the Holocaust, merited only seven words of passing mention as “the violent tragedy on October 7, 2023.” 

Indeed, months later, “when Jewish Zionist members introduced a resolution to free the hostages, the immediate response on [K-12 online safety management platform] Gaggle was ‘LMAO’ (laughing my ass off),” she relayed. The hostage resolution was portrayed online as  “[coming from] a small Zionist minority attempting to disrupt the ALAA.” 

Ms. Kopmar upbraided her union leadership and reminded it of its responsibility to its Jewish members: “Union leadership has a duty to protect its members from bias and discrimination, not foster attacks against its Jewish and non-Jewish Zionist members. This is not how a union should act, and we should be forced to support the discriminatory actions.” 

In the Q&A portion of the hearing, several Representatives asked Ms. Kopmar about whether the passage of the ceasefire resolution has dampened ALAA union participation among Israel-supporting members. She stressed that ALAA has fostered a culture which disincentivizes participation from its members who believe in a Jewish state. Ms. Kopmar explained that the ALAA has been more concerned with being a political machine than carrying out the basic duties of a union, such as bargaining and negotiation.

“Ilana Kopmar’s willingness to confront anti-Semitism within her union and speak publicly about it before Congress is a testament to her courage, and reflects the extraordinary harm being done to Jewish union members and their allies who have joined and supported their unions only to find that their unions have turned against them and wasted time, energy, and resources on promoting anti-Semitic agitprop rather than focusing on improving their members’ their wages, benefits, and working conditions,” said Rory Lancman, who represented Ms. Kopmar and is the Brandeis Center Director of Corporate Initiatives and Senior Counsel.

Author: Jonah Feuerstein