Manhattan, NY – A discrimination lawsuit against the Chetrits, one of city’s most powerful and secretive real estate families, has been settled just a few days before it was set to go to trial.
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The suit, which essentially accused the Chetrit Group of firing an employee because he was insufficiently Jewish, was dismissed yesterday, according to a spokesperson for Judge Harold Baer of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.
Opening arguments had been set for Monday morning. Details of the settlement were not immediately available.
As The Real Deal previously reported, the suit was brought by former employee Les Kramsky, who is Jewish. In the suit, Kramsky claims that Joseph Chetrit, the firm’s managing member and an Orthodox Jew, hired Kramsky because he thought Kramsky, too, was Orthodox, which is a strict interpretation of the religion.
When Joseph found out that Kramsky was not Orthodox, he fired him, according to the complaint.
In the suit, which lists Joseph as a defendant along with his brothers, and partners, Meyer, Juda, and Jacob, Kramsky also alleges that he was forced to pray at work.
Kramsky was suing for $500,000 in lost wages and benefits, plus punitive damages.
Chetrit denied the charges in court filings. Kramsky’s religious beliefs “played no role in my decisions about hiring, probation or ultimate termination,” Joseph said in court documents.
This is so bogus. I know Joseph personally and if the guy would have been a productive employee he would still be working there today.