Colpa Submits Brief to New York Court of Appeals in Support of Black Muslim

An Orthodox Jewish group, supported by three major national Jewish organizations, has asked the New York Court of Appeals to compel Greyhound Bus Company to hire a Black Muslim who was refused a job because out of religious conviction he wears a beard. In August of 1968 Abdullahi Ibrahim, an Orthodox Muslim, applied for a position as baggage clerk with Greyhound. When he appeared for an interview he was advised of the company policy that its employees be clean shaven. Mr. Ibrahim stated that he is required by his religion to wear a beard. Greyhound refused to hire him when he reiterated that he would adhere to his religious practices and beliefs and would not shave his beard. Mr. Ibrahim filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights, charging Greyhound with violation of the State’s Human Rights Law ban on discrimination in employment because of religion. The State Division ruled in favor of Mr. Ibrahim and ordered Greyhound to offer him a job. However, Greyhound appealed this decision to the Appellate Division. Several months ago the Appellate Division reversed the Division of Human Rights and held that Greyhound was not guilty of a discriminatory practice because its policy was not based on any intent to bar employment on religious grounds.

An appeal was then taken to the Court of Appeals by the State Division of Human Rights. Because of the broad implications that the case may have to Orthodox Jews who wear beards or other religious garb, the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA) decided to submit an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief urging the State’s highest court to uphold the Division of Human Rights. COLPA’s brief is supported by the New York chapter of the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Metropolitan Council of the Anti-Defamation League. In its brief COLPA argues that “the impact of a company’s employment policy on the individual’s employment opportunity must be decisive–and not the presence or absence of a specific intent to discriminate…Thus, in the case of persons such as the complainant, to refuse to hire because of religion of necessity means to apply to such individual an employment policy which ineluctably forecloses him from employment if he adheres to his religious requirement.” According to Howard Rhine and Sidney Kwestel, COLPA officers who wrote the brief, the decision of the Court of Appeals may have an important bearing on the employment rights of Sabbath observers–Orthodox Jews, Seventh Day Adventists and members of other religious groups. Many Sabbath observers have encountered difficulty because they are required to leave work early on Friday afternoons during the winter months.