We, the undersigned, lawyers, judges, court personnel, litigants, and humans with a moral compass, call for the immediate de-funding of the Bronx Defenders. 

There is no place for antisemites in our workplace.  

On October 7, 2023, as Jews around the world were celebrating Shabbat and Simchat Torah, Israel was attacked by a mass of thousands of Hamas terrorists who stormed through security fences and wreaked indescribable havoc on hundreds of Israeli (and foreign) families, leaving scars and devastation that will be felt for decades to come. So heinous and morally depraved were these attacks that no human being with a moral compass can bear witness to a fraction of the aftermath without breaking down.  So unfathomable is the level of wickedness carried out by Hamas, that to many, the reports would seem simply unbelievable in 2023. But these Hamas terrorists were so morally depraved that they videoed the atrocities they committed. Their crimes were ‘Go-pro’ed and watched – and cheered and celebrated – by the terrorists’ families back home in Gaza. In case you haven’t been reading the news, here are some highlights:

• Murdering civilians in their cars, including women, children, and entire families;
• Assaulting kibbutzim (residential neighborhoods), killing residents and burning homes;
• Holding captive and massacring families in their homes;
• Executing civilians forced from shelter by fire, grenades, or otherwise;
• Forcing hostages to lure other civilians out of their homes;
• Executing (and beheading!) babies and children, including in their beds, cribs and carseats;
• Cutting a fetus out of a live mother’s womb and then beheading the mother and fetus;
•  Murdering the elderly, and posting the evidence on the social media of those killed;
• Slaughtering more than 250 civilians attending the Supernova music festival (ironically celebrating ‘unity and love’), at point-blank range, and as they tried to escape – including a wheelchair bound teenager with cerebral palsy;
• Capturing, holding hostage, and raping (dead) women, so many times that their legs couldn’t be closed for burial;
• Kidnapping children, infants;
• Parading and spitting on deceased victims in the streets;
• Mutilating bodies of civilians and soldiers;
• Burning men, women, and children alive;
• Stripping hostages and holding them at gunpoint; 

In case you didn’t catch it the first time - much of the evidence of these atrocities was proudly filmed by Hamas.

In response, Israel declared war against Hamas, the governing body in Gaza.

And, less than two weeks after the world witnessed one of the most heinous acts of terror ever committed in a single day in our lifetime, on October 20, 2023, the Bronx Defenders Union – UAW Local 2325 – issued a public statement in support of Palestine (a/k/a the Hamas terrorists).   

The letter from the Bronx Defenders Union was devoid of a single reference to the atrocities committed by Hamas. It offered no form of condolence to the hundreds of suffering Israelis. It offered no condemnation of terrorism. It was not factually accurate. As an example, the letter blames Israel for an airstrike on Al-Ahli Hospital.  At the time of the publication of the letter, the overwhelming evidence, as concluded by the White House, the National Security Council, and major media outlets including the New York Times, the Associate Press, and CNN, showed that the explosion was caused by misfired rockets launched from within Gaza. Its lies were intended to incite hatred against Jews. And, it was not justifiable. 

Terror is not justifiable. Even terror against Jews. 

Terror against Jews = antisemitism.

Support for terror against Jews = antisemitism. 

No form of political motive justifies the cold blooded brutal murder, rape and kidnapping of infants, babies, children, music-festival goers, adults, elderly, and /or Holocaust survivors.  

The morally repugnant author of the Bronx Defenders’ ‘Statement in Support of Palestine’ clearly spelled out their antisemitic agenda by mocking the antisemitism sensitivity training they were “coerced” into attending following a very recent lawsuit settlement. Para 4 of their proudly publicized letter reads:

     Recently, BxD staff were subjected to a settlement agreement approved       by the Board of Directors and without consent of the Union, that forced       all-staff participation with the Louis D. Brandeis Center, an organization         that is proudly Zionist and that describes “anti-Israelism on university           campuses” as the “leading civil and humans right challenge”. And yet           despite the attempts at silencing support for Palestinians, we will not be       intimidated. 

The referenced settlement was reached less than a year ago in a lawsuit brought by a former employee of the Bronx Defenders, Debbie Jonas, after enduring years’ of antisemitic abuse and attacks by her co-workers and supervisors. 

We, the undersigned, cannot fathom a world where NYC would fund an organization that called for, and cheered, the senseless mass murder, rape and kidnapping of Black, Latino, LGBTQ, or any other minority. We will not stand by silently while the Bronx Defenders rationalizes the murder of innocent Jews.     

 

The year is 2023. We live in a civilized country. The atrocities committed by Hamas against Israel are beyond reprehensible and unjustifiable. 

NEVER AGAIN IS NOW.   

 

Let UAW 2325 – the Bronx Defenders’ Union -  know: 

New Yorkers do not support terror. 

New Yorkers do not support the murder of Jews.  

New Yorkers do not support antisemitism.  

And New Yorkers will not allow their taxpayer dollars to support a proudly and openly antisemitic organization.  

We will NOT allow BxD to create a hostile, toxic work environment; 

We will NOT allow BxD to verbally harass or intimidate their Jewish colleagues; 

BxD’s vitriol will be met with swift and harsh consequences. 

DE-FUND THE BRONX DEFENDERS NOW.