Stock Exchange Reverses Yarmulka Wearing Policy; Lindsay Supports Sabbath Observers

The New York Stock Exchange has reversed its position against permitting the wearing of yarmulkas on the job. The American Jewish Congress confirmed today it had received a letter to that effect from Exchange President Robert W. Haack, addressed to Theodore J. Kolish, Executive Board Chairman of the AJ Congress’ Metropolitan Council. Mr. Haack said a de facto reversal was made "immediately following" the uproar over the decision, in the wake of a suit filed with the City Commission of Human Rights by Abraham Jacob Goldstein, of Forest Hills, N.Y. Mr. Haack said "a formal settlement" would be made "within a day or two." The Commission’s hearing today on the suit was thus canceled. Mr. Goldstein, a 25-year-old tube operator at the Exchange since April, 1968, had agreed when hired not to wear a skullcap on the floor during trading hours so as not to "disturb the brokers." He filed his complaint this past January when a supervisor forbade him from wearing a yarmulka on an upper level of the Exchange. Mr. Kolish had urged Mr. Haack to "exercise (the Exchange’s) good judgment by reversing its untenable position" before the Commission hearings. Mayor John V. Lindsay pledged yesterday the city’s aid in eradicating discrimination against the city’s 100,000 Sabbath-observing employees. He said the Human Rights Commission was soliciting employers’ policy statements and preparing hearings on discrimination charges by those denied employment because of their need to leave work early Sabbath eve. The Mayor also said the Department of Purchases and the Office of Contract Compliance would insist on-the absence of such bias on the part of firms dealing with the city. Mayor Lindsay spoke at the national awards dinner of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. He received the union’s 1970 Public Service Award for "fostering harmonious inter-faith relations."