New York Legal Aid Group Forced to Apologize and Pay $170,000 for Anti-Semitism Claim

A legal aid group funded by NYC taxpayers was convicted of a 2014 “kill the NYPD” rap video and a 2021 director’s email lashing out at Israel, and cops are now forced to apologize and pay $170,000 dollars for alleged discrimination against a Jewish employee, Post learned.

“Perhaps you remember that I was called a racist, a colonialist 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,” former Bronx Defenders employee Debbie Jonas said in an email Wednesday to politically engaged legal aid workers informing them of the settlement.

Jonas, a Zionist Jew, has children with dual citizenship in Israel and the US who served in the Israel Defense Forces.

“I was cursed and bullied until I couldn’t take the hostility anymore,” said Jonas, who worked for the Bronx Defenders for eight years.

While Bronx Defenders admitted no wrongdoing in the confidential agreement, its chief executive Justine Alderman issued a sincere apology and the firm agreed to conduct anti-Semitic training for all employees, conducted by the Brandeis Center for Human Rights in accordance with the law.


Jonas claimed she was called "racist, colonizer and karen" for being a Zionist Jew with children in the Israel Defense Forces.
Jonas claimed that she was called a “racist, colonizer and Karen” for being a Jewish Zionist with children in the Israel Defense Forces.

Jonas praised Alderman’s “courage” and “humility” for making “since” an apology.

She said that after deducting legal fees, she would donate a total of $40,000 to charities in Israel: Shurst Hadin, Tobeka, Yad L’isha, Technoda, and Bet Izzy Shapiro.

“Of course, this is a big victory in the fight against Jew-hatred,” said Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Anti-Semitism, who has supported Jonas’ cause.


Legal aid group Bronx Defenders paid $170,000 in damages in a discrimination lawsuit from former employee Debbie Jonas.
Legal aid group Bronx Defenders paid $170,000 in damages in a discrimination lawsuit from former employee Debbie Jonas.

“But this saga also serves as a prime example of how widespread anti-Semitism is in all walks of life, and a lesson in the need for Jewish victims to fight for justice if there are ever meaningful consequences.”

The Post first reported in June 2021 that Shannon Cumberbatch, director of the Bronx’s Office of Justice and Institutional Transformation, criticized Israel, the “US empire” and even the NYPD during the ongoing dispute with the Palestinians in Gaza in an official email, comparing situation. in the Middle East to the “sanctioned genocide” of blacks and Native Americans in America.

In her letter as part of the settlement agreement, Alderman apologized for the employee mistreatment of Jonas.

“I am especially ashamed that I did not speak up in the face of internal emails containing hateful personal attacks on you and your family,” Alderman said.

Bronx Defenders “stands for the fundamental principle of treating people, whether as a customer, community member or staff, with empathy, care and dignity. I am personally sorry and ashamed that neither I nor the organization I lead have lived up to these values,” she told Jonas.

Bronx Defenders, which has received more than $300 million in city and state funding over the past decade to defend the interests of poor defendants in criminal and civil cases, previously came under fire in 2014 when two of its employees appeared in a nefarious online rap video calling on black people kill NYPD cops, and an Interior Department investigation found that the officers lied about their role in the video.

Justine Alderman, chief executive of the Bronx Defenders, apologized to Jonas.
Justine Alderman, chief executive of the Bronx Defenders, apologized to Jonas.
Bronx Defenders
Bronx Defenders director Shannon Cumberbatch previously criticized Israel and the
Bronx Defenders director Shannon Cumberbatch previously criticized Israel and the “US empire” in an email.
Bronx Defenders

In 2015, the city’s Department of Investigation released a scathing report concluding that Bronx Defender employees lied about their role in the video, including that they filmed it in their office.

Bronx Defenders said it defends 27,000 low-income Bronx residents annually in criminal, civil, child protection and immigration cases, and helps thousands more through social service programs.

Last month, Bronx Defenders filed two federal lawsuits against the NYPD, one of which alleges that a 60-year-old defendant was beaten by undercover Bronx narcotics officers.

The Defenders of the Bronx is a non-profit community organization that is radically changing how low-income people are represented in the legal system. We strive to create a workplace where employees of diverse backgrounds, beliefs and backgrounds can thrive and where we resolve disagreements, conflicts and harm in a healthy and productive manner. Whenever we do not live up to these values, we will take action to ensure that every member of our team is respected,” a spokesperson for the group said.

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