The Jewish Community Relations Council of Philadelphia said the U.S. Civil Service Commission, in “a highly unusual action,” had reversed a finding by its Board of Appeals and Review that three Jewish employes were refused promotion because of religious bias.
Benjamin Loewenstein, JCRC president, said the JCRC would act in federal court to appeal the reversal. He said Joseph Meranze, a JCRC director who is serving as private counsel for the employes of the Navy Aviation Supply Office here, has filed, an appeal and that the JCRC would seek permission to join the appeal action as friend of the court.
In a case initiated by the JCRC, the appeals board ruled last April that the evidence indicated there had been discrimination against the Jewish employes in respect to promotions. The board also said that civil service regulations provided that a board decision “is final and that there is no further right of administrative appeal.” The employes are Mrs. Jeanne Ellman, a procurement agent; Milton M. Mellman, a contract negotiator; and Louis Shapiro, a contract negotiator.
Loewenstein said the commission reversed its board without notifying the JCRC and the three employes that it had agreed to a request by the Secretary of the Navy to reopen the case. He said the JCRC learned that the case had been reopened only when it was notified that the appeals board had been reversed.
The case was first decided in favor of the employes in 1972 by a commission hearing examiner. The Secretary of the Navy then overturned the ruling, without a hearing, Loewenstein said. The JCRC then appealed the case-to the commission’s review board which reversed the Secretary of the Navy after submission of legal briefs.
In its brief to the appeals board, the JCRC said there had not been a single promotion of a Jewish employee beyond the grade of GS-9 since 1965, although more than 50 such promotions were made in that time and several Jewish employes were considered. The appeals board found that while there were 65 promotions to GS-11 and GS-13, none of the promoted employes, constituting 22 percent of the employes in the buying branches, were Jews.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
