New York, NY – A Manhattan Jewish congregation known as the oldest in the United States must face a lawsuit claiming it illegally fired a employee after learning she was 19 weeks pregnant when she married, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.
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The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived Alana Shultz’s claim that leaders of Congregation Shearith Israel violated her civil rights by ending her 11-year stint as program director, despite trying to reinstate her before the firing took effect.
Shultz said she was fired on July 21, 2015, a day after returning from her honeymoon, during a meeting with synagogue officials who called the firing part of a “restructuring.”
Her dismissal was effective on August 15, 2015, but Shultz said the synagogue tried to rescind it 10 days earlier after learning she had hired a lawyer.
A lower court judge said the rescinding meant Shultz had not suffered an “adverse employment action” to support her Title VII claim.
But the appeals court disagreed, saying the initial firing itself constituted the adverse employment action.
It distinguished the case from lesser actions such as placing a counseling letter in an employee’s file, or impulsively saying “you’re fired” only to backtrack quickly.
Shultz “had ample time to experience the dislocation of losing her employment at a particularly vulnerable time, undertake the effort of retaining counsel, and inform the congregation that she was going to file suit,” Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch wrote.
Lawyers for the congregation had no immediate comment.
“No female employee should have to fear termination because she becomes pregnant,” Jeanne Christensen, a lawyer for Shultz, said in an email. “We look forward to vindicating our client’s rights.”
Founded in 1654, Congregation Shearith Israel is also known as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, located on West 70th Street and Central Park West.
Shultz met her future husband in 2008 in an elevator after a charity event. They held a sabbath dinner at the synagogue two days before their wedding. ((https://www.theknot.com/us/alana-shultz-and-slava-rubin-jun-2015))
The plaintiff’s law firm, Wigdor LLP, has filed unrelated gender bias, racial bias and retaliation lawsuits on behalf of more than 20 current and former Fox News employees.
The case is Shultz v Congregation Shearith Israel of the City of New York et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-3140.
Perhaps the shul has some morals
What about morality clauses ?
A little busha for cryin’ out loud!
Wow… Not exactly the model congregant.
She will ultimately prevail, and it will cost the Shul big bucks. Next time, they will think twice, before engaging in such garbage!
Incidentally, I’ve said for many years that books could be written concerning how Jewish organizations of all spectrums, whether they be Shuls, JCC’s, Federations, Israel Bonds, ADL, etc. routinely mistreat, psychologically abuse and otherwise mistreat Rabbis, Chazans, programming staff, clerical staff, fund raisers, etc. Many employees have no employment protection, and there is hence, a high turnover. The gentiles at many of those institutions are treated better than the Jews. Unfortunately, this is tantamount to anti-semitism in reverse. A Jews should never work for a Jewish organization, as a career, as they have no job security.
So if a teacher in a religious school becomes non-religious, isn’t that a legal reason for termination?
Having her as a teacher would be a very poor role model for the religious kids, so she can’t perform her job.
Just wondering.
I can’t imagine a mother informing the public that her child was conceived before marriage
This lawsuit will follow this child
She was 5 months pregnant when she got married, but worked for the shul… I dont know the legality of it, but not keeping to the religious morals of an institution you work for, should be a good enough reason to lose a job.
No comment whether or not she should have been terminate. A woman who is in the late 20’s or early 30′ s upon becoming pregnant and marrying the father should not have waited 19 weeks to get married. Within 6 maximum 7 weeks she should have tied the not so not to be so in your face that I am pregnant. Nineteen weeks is a time when most woman have been showing that they are pregnant 2 to 3 months so why wait to get marry?
This why people go OTD. I’m sure all of you would bet that the Board of Directors of the shul all have great morals, no skeletons (or babies) in the closet. Maybe a Bet Din would rule against her, but she’ll win in a U.S. court. Welcome to America.
To #8 - What bubba meises! What about those so-called frum sexual perverts who sexually abuse their students, in religious institutions? What about the community who knows about those acts, and looks to cover them up, as well as to defame those who report such heinous acts. It seems that the holier than thou commentators on this site are more concerned with a Jewish woman being single and pregnant, than they are with pedophiles, and other sexual perverts, in the frum community! A shanda!!
These high morality standards do they apply to teachers who molest boys/girls
She was a prutza, no more no less. I say “was” because the current pic makes her look like a baalas tshuva. HALIVAI that is the case.
But, yes, I would think if you are working for a religious organization, you should have to confirm to whatever lever of conformity they have, which in the case of this place, is very little.
Whats worse, פנוי הבא על הפנייה, or לשון הרע??
I don’t understand the lawsuit, because of what I know about kids. She was showing up at the shul visibly pregnant, and all the shul children knew about it. Had she not been fired, the kids would never have stopped the taunts and pranks.
I peered closely at the photo… nice sheitel! she looks so frum & aidel, but was 5 months pregnant when she got married? Who is kidding whom? If she’d have had a 5 week engagement, like someone I know, we could still do the math but after 5 minutes, it would be a non issue. This woman flaunted herself as a single , pregnant woman in a frum environment, so what does she expect? A china dinner service or a layette when she eventually got married?
I don’t know the law, but I suggest shuls and other institutions speak to Catholic educators – I believe they have a morality clause in their contracts. That might be a way to protect the institutions.
Lastly… what shame she has brought on her family! Getting pregnant out of wedlock, waiting 5 months to marry, then suing?? Thank G-d she is no relative of mine.
It the purpose if the shul is to instill Torah values in its members, she certainly crossed the line.
If a rabbi was found to be a thief, are the congregation required to keep him. If the Chazon sells drugs, does the cong. have to renew him? The president of the shul converts to a different religion, do they have to keep him on for his term?
Where does the line get drawn in moral/ethical matters especially if the institution is supposed to teach moral and ethics and one of its employees does not subscribe to them.
This synagogue is a modern orthodox one. Very modern orthodox and was anti Trump.
What would the do to a person who caused such a pregnancy?
What is the difference between an
1 orthodox wedding, 2 conservative wedding, 3 reform wedding?
1= mother of bride is pregnant
2 = bride is pregnant
3 = rabbi is pregnant.
On a more serious note, she could have been a Pilegesh to someone like our Avos had which is 100% permitted according to the the Torah as a matter of fact the Yavetz writes that every man should take a Pilegesh.
To:#20- According to your scholarly post, as long as a frum sexual deviant/molester does his acts in private, then it is no concern; however, it is more of a concern if we see a single pregnant Jewish teacher in public. What an illogical piece of garbage your statement is!!
Alas, if only many of you would get as morally outraged and excised over abuse issues, beating up recalcitrant husbands and stealing from the government.
You are obsessed with intimacy issues…your entire moral outlook is focused on tznius, skirt length and an overemphasis on anything having to do with s-x…so you excoriate the woman in this story…while making all sorts of excuses for “helige” Yidden who commit all sorts of heinous immoral acts.
You make excuses for rebbeim charged with abuse, excoriate the families of the victims…damage their shidduch potential and boot them out of yeshivas. You charge anti-Semitism when people object to the Lakewood and Monsey communities aggressively taking over secular school systems…you cry “socialism” at the ACA, but have the highest percentage of families on the dole in Lakewood…racial epithets are so normative for you that young boys regularly pick them up in Yeshiva…you openly despise all “Goyim” and rationalize stealing from them
But…your sheiltels are just so…you sit separately even at Tisha B’Av events …you make sure boys and girls don’t sit next to one another at a Shabbos tisch…you are oh so modest!
The big question here is why she is bringing the lawsuit seeing (if I am reading this correctly) as she was already re-hired before the termination took affect.
With all the rapes that happened over the centuries, you think a bride was never pregnant? It happened more times than you people would ever believe.
How do we know she was not raped? Do we know who the father of her child is? She may say it is her husband but the only way you will know is through dna!