An unusual religious discrimination lawsuit will come to trial June 27 in federal district court in the Southern District of New York. According to The Real Deal, Les Kramsky who was employed as in-house general counsel, is suing his former employer, the prominent real estate developer Joseph Chetrit. Kramsky claims that Chetrit, an Orthodox Jew, hired Kramsky only because he believed that Kramsky was also an Orthodox Jew. The suit alleges that Chetrit began to treat Kramsky differently, and ultimately fired him, when he discovered Kramsky, though Jewish, was not Orthodox. The suit also claims that an Orthodox rabbi who regularly came to the office pressured Kramsky to pray and put on tefillin. Plaintiff asks for $500,000 in lost wages and benefits, as well as punitive damages. In court documents, Chetrit denies that Kramsky's religion played any role in his hiring, probation or firing, contending that he was terminated because it did not make economic sense to have a full-time in-house lawyer. [Thanks to Joel Katz (Relig. & State In Israel) for the lead.]
UPDATE: Real Deal reports on June 24 that the lawsuit was settled out of court just a few days before it was set to go to trial.
