Manhattan, NY – A Roman Catholic woman says she was banned from wearing her crucifix while working for Orthodox Jews at a Manhattan frame and watch wholesaler.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Jamie Errico said she was told not wear crosses to work at Concepts in Time near Herald Square – and on one occasion when she did, store owner Saul Jemal pulled her aside and told her to “remove it or tuck it under her shirt, and never wear it again,” Errico charged in a discrimination suit against the store.
Jemal, the suit added, also “refused to allow plaintiff to make or sell watches with any kind of non-Jewish religious symbols.”
The Manhattan Supreme Court suit accuses the store of having a double standard, noting that Jemal and the other Orthodox men all wore yarmulkes, while the women were allowed to wear Star of David necklaces.
Errico, 41, also complained that while Jewish employees were allowed to leave early on the eve of important religious holidays, she had her pay docked when she didn’t work on Christmas Eve , which isn’t actually a holiday.
Errico, who was fired from her sales VP job last December, is now suing the company for unspecified money damages for the alleged gender and religious discrimination.
Her lawyer, Matthew Blit, said, “Freedom of religion is a fundamental right in this country. It is illegal for an employer to discriminate on the basis of religion or deny a person a religious accommodation because they believe in a different religion.”
The store didn’t return a call for comment. It sued Errico earlier this year, charging she was trying to steal its client list to start a competing business. That suit, which Errico’s side contends was filed in retaliation for her EEOC complaint against the business, has since been dismissed on technical grounds.
I can see and hear the screams of protest that would arise if the situation was to be reversed, and Mr Jemal would be refused permission by his Gentile boss to wear his kipah etc.
Saul Jemal and his business partners are skating on very thin ice if they persist in this discriminatory action.
If this is true, it’s very bad.
What a frivolous law suit, baseless and w/o merit. She is shooting to get a settlement.
Sounds like a bogus suit to me.
Let her wear it. This is America.
Everyone busy shouting about the wig fiasco being a Chillul Hashem? Well to me this story here points to a real Chillul Hashem
Although I would still be careful to jump to conclusion about how things really went down….
Good, she should sue their pants off. What , religious discrimination applies only to Orthodox Jews?
Concepts in Time were obviously real discriminators, that they even gave her a job as sales Vice President. No! they didn’t give it to an orthodox Jew, they gave it to a non jew or gentile. It appears that she left wanting to open her own business and wanted to take the business addresses and acquaintances. Great idea. But then don’t sue for discrimination. We obviously don’t have the facts. But one thing is certain that these orthdox boys gave her a lucrative job even though she was not jewish.
Waiting to hear from the “Chilul Hashem First Infantry Division”. How the chareidi orthodox act so nasty. Please all should stand aside because the cavalry is about to attack.
If her allegations are true, which I hope not, than they should impose a severe fine and penalty on the store-owners. Yiddin have been the target of so much discrimination over the years for wearing yarmulkes and heimeshe luvsh. Its a big chilul hashem if these store owners told her not to wear her tzeimel which is as important to her as our “stuff? is to us.
perhaps she should get a georgi wig
If this is true, they deserve to be sued for denying her religious rights. Not for not selling religious articles, because they don’t have to sell non-jewish articles in their store, but for not allowing her to wear her own religious articles is beyond chutzpah!
You are all so wrong. This is a PRIVATE business, owned by a PRIVATE individual. The owner determines who is hired, who is fired, and what the rules are if you work there. He can say no fat people, no Jews, no gentiles, no blacks, whatever he wants. At least thats how it SHOULD BE. You don’t like the rules? Find another job! I am so sick of this everyone has rights garbage. I should be able to sell my property to whomever I want, hire and fire whomever I want, and tell whomever I want to keep off my grass. If I put a sign on my lawn that says “NO BLACKS ARE ALLOWED ON MY GRASS”, what’s the problem? I paid for it, it’s mine. Now go away with your intrusive policies and laws. You liberals want all the protection, but if I want the same protection to protect MY stuff, then it’s a different story. Do you think a Jewish-owned sefarim store should have to hire a Catholic person to work the front counter? NEVER! So why can’t the owner advertise for help wanted and say Jews only?
I’d hate to be forced to stare at a tzelem all day.
If it disturbs the coworkers and the boss of doing business then he has the right
If it really bothered her why didn’t she complain when working there? Now it looks like trying to get back at the company
I don’t understand. Is wearing a tzelem a religious obligation?
Did this business have a dress code that banned the wearing of all personal jewelry? No? Maybe they should have a costume code for all customer service workers, like Disney.
1) she isn’t OBLIGATED by her religion to wear it.
2) why should they have to let her design s/thing, if they don’t like the design, for w/ever reason? If i’m an architect, & I design a building with a star of david (ala the iranian terminal
:), do they HAVE TO accept it?!
No. 1 christians are not obligated to wear a cross and if my non jew boss would tell me i can not wear my ( lehavdil ) talis gadol and tefilin during work I would not feel discriminated ! no. 2 he only asked her not to wear it ! He did not fire her ! no. 3 for many jews the crusofix is ofendig based on what it represents and considering that he had her work in a high position many of his jewish custemers would feel unwelcome with her big cross sticking out like that ! And I think that she also understood that ! but !!!!
Now i know that a lot of BS flies around. I met Saul Jemal on a job interview for his company & although it did not work out, he was very respectful & a true Mentch. It sounds to me that this lady wanted to cause trouble, perhaps she wore the largest cross just to shove it in the peoples face. I have no doubt she was also a bad worker & was fired and now she is trying to fire back.
From the sounds of it, if I was on the jury I would laugh at her! This sounds like she is trying to get at them for firing here LEGITIMATELY and she wants money.
How can she compare the jews getting off on erev whatever to her getting off on 12/24 which as it says in the story IS NOT A RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY! In my industry most places close early on the 24th out of the goodness of their hearts and nothing else.
If customers said something about the tzaylim (if thats even true!) then the boss has a right to ask her to put in her shirt. The goyim cave in for a lot less when it comes to getting rid of their stupid trees of the season of not to have the big fat guy in the red suit. Did you hear about the New York City YMCA (thats a C folks!!) that is trying to be PC by not having shmata klutz??
SHE IS LYING!!
If a Jew is told he must remove his kipah when inside church premises, is that “religious discrimination”?
This would all depend on whether the tzeilem had a Yoshkele hanging on it and whether his petzuah was covered adequately. Otherwise, legally, it’s a triple issue of a tzeilem, Yoshkele and an uncovered makom ervah which would complicate legal matters. See Mandelbaum vs Alabama 467 U.S. 1 (1972)
If she was a vice president it shows there was no religious prejudice. I for one would not want a person working for me in my office to have a tzelem and would ask him or her to remove it. If they came with it for an interview they would not get the job. Do we have to hire Jews for yoshka teacher in a cheder.
If they are not allowing her to wear her crucifix, they are wrong. If she wants to worship her avodah zorah, let her. That’s her problem.
Kanaim, you are without doubt a moron. Let’s all go back to the days of “Room for rent. No Jews, no dogs.” See how long you last!
As for this story, I think the employers are wrong. if the X is huge with a picture of some guy on it, then maybe they could ask her to replace it with something in keeping with the sizes of the Magen Davids the Jewish women wear. That’s reasonable…it’s a jewelry store after all. They could even get it discounted for her!
Holidays. Doesn’t B&H expect their staff (all of them) to take off Succos & Pesach without pay? That’s their right. So I guess the non-Jews in B&H take of Dec. 25th (unless it’s Shabbos like this year) without pay as well. Dec 24 is NOT a legal holiday.
Lastly…not selling watches with Xtian themes…one law that Kanaim may have right is that AFAIK, you can sell whatever you want in your own business. Not her business, not her right to dictate what merchandise they should sell. That’s plain stupid.
Many goyim …well, the Christian goyim, anyway… wear crosses and other religious trinkets UNDER their garments. If she was wearing it for religious reasons (which is her call) then it could be done under the blouse. If she was wearing it as a fashion statement, as I strongly suspect she was, the employer was in its rights to ask it not be worn openly as it would discomfort the clientele.
I wonder if it were z’man haMoshiach, if you all would want E”Y run according to American law, too. I’m pretty sure Torah law wouldn’t allow a display of avodah zara in a Jewish storeowner’s place of business.
1. she wasnt fired, she left so wheres the beef?
2.wearing a cross is not a religious obligation. she could have worn it hidden. a yarmulke, according to many, is a religious obligation- not merley a symbol like a cross.
3. xmas eve is not a religious holiday and he didnt fire her for not working. she could choose ot to work and not get paid. there is no discrimination here.
4. sounds like she wants a settlement to go open a competing business.
5. the company can decide what products it wants to sell. if it doesnt want to sell mickey mouse watches or cross watches, it can dictate that.
6. contingent fee lawyers are what is ruining the USA with their frivolous lawsuits.
My question is…. if there was discrimination why didnt she file suit then instead of waiting till after she was fired?She was willing to put up w the discrimination as long as she had a job?