Newark Jewish Officer Says N.j. Supreme Court Had to Ban Holiday Time off

A Jewish police officer on the Newark force said the State Supreme Court had no alternative in ruling last week as illegal a long-standing practice allowing Jewish policemen to have time off with pay on Jewish holidays. The unanimous decision climaxed a lengthy battle by Newark police lieutenant Joseph Ebler to end the practice.

Capt, Max Steinberg said that “based on simple fact, the court had no other alternative,” adding that the practice was meant to “create a little goodwill” in the department. He noted that because there are only 40 Jews on the 1,300-man force, the practice had never created a manpower problem, according to the Jewish News of Newark.

Lt. Ebler raised the issue in 1963 when he tried to file a complaint with the State Civil Rights division on which the division took no action. The then Sgt. Ebler also filed suit in Superior Court which dismissed it. He later obtained help from the American Civil Liberties Union. He argued his own case before the State Supreme Court, also seeking damages as payment for working overtime on Christian holidays during the past six years. The court did not rule on that claim.

Lt. Ebler said he objected specifically to what he called a department blanket order which he said permitted all Jewish policemen to take off the holidays with pay whether or not a particular officer observed a holiday. He added he had no objection to any individual officer taking a day off for observance with the time deducted from accumulated overtime.

Rabbi Horace L. Zemel, senior police chaplain, said he regretted the decision. He said Jewish police had often volunteered to work on Christmas, a legal holiday, and other non-Jewish religious holidays.