'Non-binary' student bar association president lost a job for siding with Hamas. Now she's being kicked out of office.



Hamas' latest series of terror attacks on Israel have left over 1,200 Israelis and at least 25 Americans dead. Thousands more are wounded. Over 95 families have been notified that their loved ones — including infants and disabled relatives — have been taken hostage amid reports of rape and other war crimes.

Ryna Workman, the so-called "non-binary" president of the New York University Student Bar Association, equated this carnage to "resistance" and pinned the blame on Israel. Like other leftist students keen to side with Hamas, she continues to reap the whirlwind.

TheBlaze previously noted that Workman, who uses "they/them" pronouns, lost a high-paying gig at a big law firm following reports she had told the student body that the terrorism perpetrated by Hamas on civilians was "necessary."

On Wednesday, the NYU Student Bar Association moved to depose Workman.

What's the background?

Workman published a statement in her capacity as SBA president earlier this week, saying, "This week, I want to express, first and foremost, my unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination. Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life."

"This regime of state-sanctioned violence created the conditions that made resistance necessary. I will not condemn Palestinian resistance," she continued. "Instead ... I condemn the violence of apartheid. I condemn the violence of settler colonialism. I condemn the violence of military occupation."

Workman concluded by saying, "Palestine will be free."

The student previously served as a summer associate at Winson & Strawn LLP, a 170-year-old firm headquartered in Chicago with offices in NYC and various other cities around the world. She was apparently poised to make a small fortune at the firm as a lawyer. However, upon learning of Workman's pro-terror missive, the firm issued a statement indicating the offer of employment had been rescinded.

"Today, Winston & Strawn learned that a former summer associate published certain inflammatory comments regarding Hamas' recent terrorist attack on Israel and distributed it to the NYU Student Bar Association. These comments are profoundly in conflict with Winston & Strawn's values as a firm," the firm stated Tuesday.

— (@)

Jobless and dethroned

Facing significant backlash over their student president's apparent support of terrorism, the NYU SBA issued a statement Wednesday claiming Workman — whose activist pronouns they made sure to respect — had been speaking for herself, reported the New York Post.

"Earlier today, the SBA President published a statement about the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine as part of the weekly bulletin email. The remaining members of SBA are writing to clarify that we did not write, approve, or see this message before it was published. SBA did not hold discussions about whether to issue a public statement about the conflict or the content of any potential statement," read the post.

The post was dated Oct. 10, but the URL alternatively indicates an Oct. 11 publication date.

"The 'Message from the President' reflects their personal views and does not represent the views of SBA as an organization or any of its officers," continued the post.

The SBA post further indicated that Tuesday evening, the group's board voted to initiate the removal of Workman as president. To this end, a hearing will be conducted on Oct. 17 and 24 as part of the removal procedures.

While the authors of the Oct. 11 statement noted they mourned "the tremendous loss of human life in the past several days," they still did not condemn Hamas' attacks on civilians.

Troy McKenzie, the dean of the law school, and David Tanner, the chair of the NYU law board of trustees, did however issue a separate statement "unequivocally condemn[ing] the recent terrorist acts and the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas in Israel," adding that "any statement that does not recognize this brutality does not reflect the values of NYU Law."

The New York Daily News indicated that Workman had not provided comment.

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Devastated Irishman says he was grateful to learn his daughter had been killed by Hamas rather than taken hostage: 'Death was a blessing'



Hamas terrorists have taken as many as 150 captives into Gaza following their savage attacks on Israel. Thomas Hand's daughter is not among them. Rather, she is among the over 1,200 Israelis murdered in recent days.

Upon learning that his little girl may ultimately have been spared the inhumanities captives often suffer at the hands of Hamas, the devastated Irishman reportedly rejoiced, later telling CNN, "Death was a blessing."

Hundreds of hostages facing unimaginable horrors

The Israel Defense Forces indicated Thursday that more than 95 families have been notified that their loved ones were taken hostage.

The New York Times noted that most of those Hamas has taken hostage were seized from their homes along Israel's border with Gaza. Among them are infants, children, people with disabilities, and geriatrics. Many are believed to have been stowed away by Hamas in various tunnels beneath Gaza.

Some Israelis have seen footage of their abducted family members circulated online.

Yoni Asher told the Times he saw a video online of his wife, Doron Asher Katz, in the back of a pickup truck surrounded by Islamist terrorists.

"I can't sleep — I'm living outside my own body," said Asher, noting that his 5- and 3-year-old daughters were with his wife when she was taken.

Writing in Newsweek, Asher said, "The captors need to release them as soon as they can. It's a critical window of time. There's not much time for little babies in captivity. Adults can hold on a few days. But not them."

Another couple saw their two children, including a 9-month-old, among the hostages in another video.

According to the Times of London, the terrorists are divided on what to do with the abducted women and children. Some allegedly are eager to get rid of them, recognizing that the videos of their beaten and bloody victims have unified support against them even in parts of the Arab world and have further legitimized the ballistic fury of the Israeli military.

Other factions want to keep the victims alive and use them as bargaining chips for prisoner exchanges.

"The idea of a prisoner swap now seems very distant," said Patrick Kingsley, the Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times.

Monday night, Hamas threatened to butcher a civilian hostage every time an Israeli airstrike hit Gazans "in their homes without warning."

Extra to executions, there have been multiple reports of Hamas terrorists sexually abusing their victims.

One survivor of the massacre at the Supernova music festival told the Tablet, "Women have been raped at the area of the rave next to their friends' bodies, dead bodies."

Several of the apparent rape victims were reportedly later executed, while others were taken to Gaza, where they were paraded through the city's streets with bloodied pelvic regions.

A 2022 U.N. report detailed various accounts of how Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have subject prisoners to various tortures in the past, including systematic abuses of a sexual nature.

A father's grief and unexpected solace

Unlike Asher and other family members whose loved ones were taken by Hamas, Thomas Hand is now certain of his 8-year-old daughter's fate.

Hand moved to the Be'eri kibbutz as a volunteer from Ireland 30 years ago and has lived there ever since. Although his wife recently died of cancer, he has not been alone thanks to his daughter, Emily, reported CNN.

Hand's daughter, Emily, went to a neighbor's house in the Be'eri Kibbutz for a sleepover Friday for "a girly night," according the grieving father.

The next morning around 7 a.m., terrorists stormed the kibbutz.

"Until I heard the shots. And it was already too late. If I had known … I could have maybe ran, got her, got her friend, got the mother, brought them back to my place. But by the time I realized what was happening, it was already too late," said Hand, noting the kibbutz had then been overrun by terrorists.

Hours later, Hand and other survivors were evacuated by the military to a hotel on the Dead Sea. Two days later he learned that Emily was among the 120 who had been massacred.

"They just said, 'We found Emily. She's dead,' and I went, 'Yes!' I went, 'yes!' and smiled because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew," Hand told CNN. "That was the best possibility that I was hoping for. She was either dead or in Gaza."

"And if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death. That is worse than death," continued the grief-stricken father. "She'd be in a dark room filled with Christ knows how many people and terrified every minute, hour, day, and possibly years to come. So death was a blessing, an absolute blessing."

"In this crazy world, here is me hoping my daughter is dead," Hand later added.

In a heart-wrenching interview on @CNNsitRoom, CNN reporter Clarissa Ward speaks with @WolfBlitzer about a grieving father who finally received confirmation of his daughter's tragic death during the Hamas attack. Watch:
— CNN (@CNN) 1697082327

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Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government blasted for giving two standing ovations to a veteran Waffen-SS Nazi days before Yom Kippur



It turns out that unrestrained eugenics is not the only thing out of the Third Reich that Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party of Canada has found cause to celebrate.

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an address to the Canadian Parliament on Friday, Liberal House Speaker Anthony Rota lavished praise on a 98-year-old who had served with Heinrich Himmler's Waffen-SS in World War II. Trudeau and his socialist ally Jagmeet Singh, head of the NDP, joined Rota and their respective parties in honoring the Nazi veteran with two standing ovations just days ahead of Yom Kippur.

Critics, including the leaders of various Jewish groups, have unloaded on the Canadian government — especially on the Trudeau Liberals who have previously had troubling ties with anti-Semites and accused those with whom they've disagreed of being Nazis.

A Nazi on Parliament Hill

House Speaker Rota, a parliamentary member of Trudeau's Liberal Party, invited Yaroslav Hunka to Parliament, introducing him Friday as a war hero "who fought [for] the Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today."

This introduction took place after Zelenskyy thanked Canada for its support of Ukraine's defense against Russian invaders, which has taken the form of over $6.6 billion in aid since January 2022, reported the Washington Post.

"I am very proud to say that he is from North Bay and from my riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming," Rota said of Hunka. "He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service."

Members of Parliament jumped to their feet, applauding the emotional Nazi veteran who responded with dual thumbs up.

The Western Standard reported that among those cheering on Hunka was Ya'ara Saks, a Liberal member of Parliament who previously accused the peaceful trucker convoy protesters of being Nazis, claiming that "honk honk" "is an acronym for 'heil Hitler.'"

Trudeau, who similarly cheered on the Nazi veteran, previously accused Conservative politicians who supported the trucker convoy of standing with "people who wave swastikas" whilst his own government discussed possibly using German Leopard 2 tanks on unarmed protesters.

Although sympathetic to the Liberal Party, Canadian state media later conceded that Hunka had served under Nazi command in the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, a voluntary unit also known as the SS 14th Waffen Division or the First Ukrainian Division.

According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, the Waffen-SS was "heavily involved in the commission of the Holocaust through their participation in mass shootings, anti-partisan warfare, and in supplying guards for Nazi concentration camps."

Hunka's unit also committed atrocities against the Polish resistance during the war and committed massacres of adults and children alike, such as in the village of Huta Pieniacka.

Hunka's unit was deemed a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.

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Backlash

While Rota evidently has trouble differentiating between Nazi veterans and the Canadian war heroes who helped ensure their defeat, others suffered no such difficulty.

B'nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn noted that Hunka's unite comprised "ultra-nationalist ideologues" who "dreamed of an ethnically homogenous Ukrainian state and endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing," reported CTV News.

"We understand an apology is forthcoming. We expect a meaningful apology. Parliament owes an apology to all Canadians for this outrage, and a detailed explanation as to how this could possibly have taken place at the centre of Canadian democracy," added Mostyn.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs wrote on X, "Canada's Jewish community stands firmly with Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression. But we can't stay silent when crimes committed by Ukrainians during the Holocaust are whitewashed."

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies stated Sunday, "The fact that a veteran who served in a Nazi military unit was invited to and given a standing ovation in Parliament is shocking. At a time of rising antisemitism and Holocaust distortion, it is incredibly disturbing to see Canada's Parliament rise to applaud an individual who was a member of a unit in the Waffen-SS, a Nazi military branch responsible for the murder of Jews and others and that was declared a criminal organization during the Nuremberg Trials."

"There should be no confusion that this unit was responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable," added FSWC.

Sebastian Skamski, spokesman for Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's office, said, "We find the reports of this individual's history very troubling," adding that Trudeau's Liberals had some explaining to do.

Poilievre said in a statement, "This is an appalling error in judgement on the part of Justin Trudeau, whose personal protocol office is responsible for arranging and vetting all guests and programming for state visits of this kind."

"No parliamentarians (other than Justin Trudeau) had the opportunity to vet this individual's past before he was introduced and honoured on the floor of the House of Commons," added Poilievre. "Without warning or context, it was impossible for any parliamentarian in the room (other than Mr. Trudeau) to know of this dark past."

Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the socialistic NDP whose support ensures Trudeau's Liberal Party won't have to face an election, said, "This event has caused harm to the Jewish community and for that, I am sorry. ... We must all stand together against the rising tide of anti-Semitism."

Apologies and blame

After it was revealed that the Liberal speaker had championed a former Nazi in the people's Parliament, Trudeau's office rushed to displace blame.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office stated, "The independent Speaker of the House has apologized and accepted full responsibility for issuing the invitation and for the recognition in Parliament. This was the right thing to do."

Rota jumped on the proverbial Waffen-SS grenade, claiming the initiative was "entirely my own."

"I have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision," said Rota. "I wish to make clear that no one, including fellow parliamentarians and the Ukraine delegation, was aware of my intention or of my remarks before I delivered them."

Trudeau's Liberals appear to have had issues distancing themselves from anti-Semitic causes in recent years.

Trudeau's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, granddaughter of a Nazi collaborator, was accused last year of posing with a "pro-Nazi" banner, reported the Post.

Freeland had apparently held up the colors of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army at a protest last year — contentious because one of its factions, led by Stepan Bandera, allied with the Nazis and murdered thousands of Jews and around 100,000 Poles.

TheBlaze previously reported that the Trudeau Liberal government also gave a sizable taxpayer-funded grand to a purported anti-racism advocacy group in 2022 that turned out to have a raging anti-Semite as a top consultant.

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Russian Atrocities Exposed

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