A Brooklyn taxi driver was awarded $11,889 in damages and compensation from Trans-World Airlines today on grounds that anti-Semitic bias was responsible for his dismissal from a probationary job with TWA at Kennedy Airport in 1969. In ordering the airline to pay the amount, the City Commission on Human Rights contended that Malcolm Rattner 27, a Vietnam war veteran, was fired, “because of his religion.” A TWA spokesman called the ruling “ludicrous” and said the airline would appeal.
The Commission, in its ruling, rejected TWA’s contention that Rattner was fired because his work as a ramp serviceman was “unsatisfactory.” “He was subjected to a deliberate campaign of harassment by company officials which included his being forced to work in areas where vile anti-Semitic graffiti known to his superiors were in evidence,” the Commission said in its ruling. It also stated that $5000 of the total damages awarded was to compensate Rattner for “humiliation, outrage and mental anguish.” According to Rattner, who now drives a cab for a living, his troubles with TWA began when he asked for a day off on Yom Kippur.
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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.
