What do H & H and B & H have in common?

You think Woody Allen and Larry David have Jewish identity issues? Try putting The New York Times on the couch.

The paper of record has long exhibited a split personality when it comes to the Jews, vacillating between obsession and avoidance.

In the avoidance department, check out its coverage of the legal troubles facing two of New York’s iconic (and Jewey) stores: H & H Bagels and B & H, the electronics mega store.

Hemler Toro, the owner of the best-tasting (and kosher) bagel shop, is facing more than a $1 million in penalties and 15 years in prison for allegedly pocketing state and federal payroll withholding taxes. B & H, meanwhile, is being sued by three women who allege that they were denied promotions after their Chasidic supervisors told them that women were religiously prohibited from holding sales jobs.

The owners of both stories deny the allegations.

Years of training have left me predisposed to see the Jewish angle in any story or stories – so it’s probably no surprise when seeing separate reports in The New York Post on the two cases, a “blog post alert” flashed through my head. But before I could write up an item tying the together, I noticed that the Times had beaten me to the punch.

Except where I saw two Jewish stories, the Times saw ampersands. As in the following headline: “It Was Some Day in Court for Ampersands.”

Look, as I said, the fact that my mind instantly linked these two stories along Jewish lines probably means I’ve been doing this for too long. But I think it’s even stranger to lump these two stories together – and then make no reference to Jewish, kosher or Chasidim.

If it was just H & H, I’d get it. Yes, the Post did allude to the store’s place in the city’s ethnic landscape, noting that its bagels have “received screen shout-outs from Woody Allen … and Jerry Seinfeld’s sidekick Kramer." But it wasn’t a must. After all, the place is owned by a Hispanic, it doesn’t scream kosher and plenty of non-Jewish New Yorkers love the bagels.

But how do you write a story that is half about allegations of religious discrimination at B & H, but not mention that the place is run by Chasidim? Well, here’s how the Times managed to do it:

In the lawsuit against B & H, filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, one current and three former female employees claim that they were denied sales positions because they are women. According to the lawsuit, this was a common practice at B & H.

Nakisha Cushnie, the lead plaintiff in the case, was “advised that these positions were not open to her due to ‘religious reasons,’ ” the lawsuit says.
Richard B. Ancowitz, the women’s lawyer, said there were no religious exemptions in antidiscrimination laws.

“It’s an upsetting thing, in this day and age especially, to not be able to get a job because of your gender,” Mr. Ancowitz said in an interview. “I thought we were beyond that.”

Although no managers expressly told the women that they were denied promotion because of their sex, Mr. Ancowitz said that the company had no saleswomen and had turned down other female applicants for sales jobs.

It’s not quite the same as playing down the Holocaust. But still…

For those looking for a few more details on the B & H story, here’s the Post’s take:

"I asked to work in sales and make more money, but was told that no women were allowed in sales for ‘religious reasons,’ " said Naskinsha Cushnie, who worked at the Hasidic-run store for more than a year.

Cushnie and three other women who were denied jobs at the photo store yesterday filed a $7 million lawsuit in The Bronx. claiming sexual discrimination in the workplace.

“It’s not a question of women being relegated to back-of-the-bus status; they are not even being let on the bus," said Richard Ancowitz, an attorney for the women. "They are just not being hired at this store. It’s really a shame."

Ancowitz said that under the law, B&H has no First Amendment-religious freedom to discriminate against women. He also said that they also have no right under the Torah to discriminate.

"I have consulted with leading authorities, and it is quite clear that there are no tenets of Jewish law that require the sales force to be male-only," Ancowitz said. "In fact, the Torah itself teaches, ‘Justice, justice, you shall seek.’ "