Suit was filed last week in a New York federal district court by an Orthodox Jewish organization that operates two summer camps in the Catskill Mountains. The complaint (full text) in Oorah, Inc. v. Schoharie County, N.Y., (ND NY, filed 2/5/2021), alleges in part:
2. Over the past decade, Oorah has time and again been subjected to official action discriminating against it on the basis of its Orthodox Jewish character by Defendants. The goal of these arbitrary and discriminatory actions has been to thwart the operation of Oorah’s religious programs and to deter Oorah’s staff, volunteers and participants from the practice of their Jewish faith. Oorah has repeatedly been forced to obtain relief against Schoharie County in the state courts in order to allow it to operate its religious facilities.
3. This hostility rose to a crescendo in 2020, when Defendants... exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to shut down Oorah’s operations completely in an illegal, premeditated, arbitrary and discriminatory manner.
Yeshiva World reports on the lawsuit.
