A New York City legal aid firm apologized as part of a $170,000 settlement for allegedly discriminating against a Jewish employee who is pro-Israel.
Bronx Defenders, which is funded with New York City tax money, was also denounced in the past for a 2021 email from its director attacking Israel and the police, and also sparked outrage for a “Kill the NYPD” rap video in 2014, the New York Post reported.
Debbie Jonas, a Jewish woman who worked for Bronx Defenders, said in a Wednesday email to the legal aid group’s employees informing them of the settlement: “You may remember that I was called a racist, a colonizer and a karen [slang for entitled white person], and I was told that I was worse than the dirt under your feet and that my children were murderers.”
Jonas, who holds dual Israeli-US citizenship, and served in the IDF, worked as a staffer at the organization for eight years..
“I was cursed and badgered until I could no longer stand the hostility,” Jonas wrote, according to the news outlet.
Bronx Defenders did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement. But its executive director Justine Olderman apologized and the organization said it intended to offer antisemitism training from Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law to all employees.
In her apology, Olderman added: “I feel a special kind of shame for not speaking up in the face of internal emails containing hateful personal attacks on you and your family.”
She told Jonas that Bronx Defenders “stands for the fundamental principle of treating people, whether client, community member, or staff with compassion, care, and dignity, I am personally sorry and ashamed that both I and the organization I lead did not live up to those values.”
Bronx Defenders has been the recipient of over $300 million in city and state funding over the last decade. It takes on criminal and civil cases from poor defendants.