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💼 Mamdani’s new criminal justice coordinator navigated turmoil over Oct. 7 at Bronx Defenders
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Justine Olderman, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s choice to lead his Office of Criminal Justice, led the Bronx Defenders during a bitter internal dispute about responding to the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Olderman, a New York University Law professor and then-executive director of the Bronx Defenders, condemned a statement from the public defense organization’s union issued on Oct. 20, 2023. The statement said that Israel’s assault on Gaza was “genocidal,” affirmed support for “Palestinian liberation and resistance under occupation” and did not mention the Israelis killed on Oct. 7.
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Olderman told her staff that the letter “caused grave risk to the organization and our ability to serve the people who need our representation,” according to a New York Times report in December 2023.
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Olderman stepped down from her post in December 2023 after an announcement of her departure in August, prior to the Oct. 7 attacks. In March 2023, she publicly apologized to a staffer, Debbie Jonas, who sued the Bronx Defenders for alleged antisemitic harassment.
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Jonas won a $170,000 settlement that included mandatory antisemitism training for Bronx Defenders employees administered by the Brandeis Center. Olderman said in her apology, “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.”
🗣️ Interfaith leaders accuse Menin of double standard over anti-Islam comments
- Faith leaders representing Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Sikh communities rallied outside City Hall on Friday and urged City Council Speaker Julie Menin to take action against Inna Vernikov, a Jewish Republican council member who has made inflammatory claims about Muslims.
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Vernikov has been involved in several controversies. Most recently, she questioned in a social media post last month whether Muslims praying near a Jewish school in Brooklyn were engaged in an “intentional” act of intimidation. Vernikov also called Mamdani a “terrorist-lover” who wanted to see Jews “burn in an oven” during the mayoral election, and she was arrested in 2023 for bring a gun to a pro-Palestinian protest.
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Vernikov was elected by the council’s Jewish Caucus in January to lead its antisemitism task force. Menin rebuked Vernikov over her comments at the time and said she would remove her from the post if they continued. But on Friday, Menin said that was not her role and the caucus was responsible for Vernikov’s future on the task force, according to the Times.
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In an open letter from May, the group of interfaith protesters demanded measures against Islamophobia that are “equally substantive as the recently adopted Antisemitism initiative and action plans advanced by the Council.”
🤝 Menin endorses Ruskay in race against Northrup
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Menin has endorsed Stephanie Ruskay, who hopes to be the first woman rabbi elected to a state legislature, in her race for the New York Assembly, according to Times reporter Sally Goldenberg. Ruskay is running against Jewish lawyer Eli Northrup, who has Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ backing.
🏆 John Lithgow wins Tony for portraying Roald Dahl in ‘Giant,’ a play about Dahl’s antisemitism
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The actor John Lithgow won his third Tony Award on Sunday for his depiction of the writer Roald Dahl.
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Lithgow stars as Dahl in “Giant,” which opened on Broadway in March. The play, which originated in London in 2024, depicts ultimately unsuccessful efforts to get Dahl to rein in antisemitic comments he made about the 1982 Israel-Lebanon war.
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Multiple awards went to Jewish performers during the 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall, including Caissie Levy for “Ragtime,” Alden Ehrenreich for “Becky Shaw” and Shoshana Bean for “The Lost Boys.” The ceremony also featured a demonstration of sympathy with Palestinians, a recent hallmark of awards shows, from “The Lost Boys” winner Ali Louis Bourzgui.
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