The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce issued its long-awaited report on anti-Semitism in unions last month, following a recent hearing held by the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee where a Brandeis Center client testified. Indeed, the Congressional Report is almost entirely about the experience of our clients, attorneys at Nassau County Legal Aid in New York, who are members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW Local 2325 (The ALAA), and on whose behalf the Brandeis Center filed a federal lawsuit this summer. Brandeis Center client Ilana Kopmar, a Nassau County Legal Aid attorney and ALAA member, 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. The Committee had previously subpoenaed the ALAA after the union refused to voluntarily respond to the Committee’s questions, and deposed the ALAA’s president. At the hearing, Ms. Kopmar recounted her experience as a Jewish member of the ALAA, the anti-Semitic, hostile environment within the union that focused relentlessly 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. The Report, “Union Misrepresentation: How Unions Put Politics Over Members While Pursuing Pro-Palestine Activism,” makes a number of findings concerning the ALAA, including: “Unions have failed to be responsive to their Jewish members and their supporters who face antisemitic attacks and harassment since the terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.” “ … ALAA members who believe in the importance of a Jewish state as part of their Jewish identity, as well as those who have expressed views supportive of Israel, have been subject to significant harassment in internal communications.” ALAA internal discussion boards “reveal a toxic environment within ALAA, as antisemitic communications and generalized harassment directed at ALAA members went unchecked.” Moreover, the Congressional Report found that, “[n]ot only did ALAA allow antisemitic and general harassment to go unchecked, but it also attempted to conceal its toxic environment from Congress.” The Brandeis Center has counseled and advised numerous Jewish union members and non-Jewish allies about their rights to a union environment free of anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination, and will continue to do so. As the Congressional Report makes clear, union settings are no more immune from the reach of anti-Semitism than are the college campuses, K-12 schools, and workplaces where the Brandeis Center also devotes its time, resources, and expertise to protect Jewish students, faculty, and employees. Authored by: Rory Lancman