Article appeared in The Buffalo Jewish Review, June 1, 2012
The Plaintiff was employed as a truck driver by Carson & Roberts from April 2006 until May 2008. During the period the plaintiff was supervised by Unangst and Gingerelli, descrobed as “bookend partners,” who shared an office in a building on the premises that was operated as a shop. This case arose in New Jersey (Cowher v. Carson & Roberts, 2012 WL 1314077, decided April 18th, 2012).
In his complaint, files on Dec. 18, 2008, the plaintiff alleged the continual utterance of expliit slurs about Jews directed toward him from January 2007 up to May 2008. The comments included the following:
- Jew bag;
- Jew bastard;
- Jew shuffle;
- Bagel meister;
- Only a Jew would argue over his hours;
- If you were a German we would burn you in the oven;
The plaintiff did complain to higher managers and was told, “Just laugh it off and they will forget about it” and ignore the harassment. The plaintiff testified that Unangst and Gingerelli believed he was Jewish, and because of their comments, so did several other employees. In fact, the plaintiff was not Jewish.
The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, concluded that the discrimination that occurred happened based on the perceived status of the plaintiff as Jewish, and that since it would not have happened otherwise, his claim of discrimination is covered. The court held: “We recognize that anti-Semitic comments are likely to affect a reasonable Jew more profoundly than a reasonable non-Jew, although we do not suggest that any reasonable person should tolerate comments of a nature as offensive as those expressed by Unangst and Gingerelli.”
Thus, in this case the totality of the circumstances – including the frequency of the discriminatory conduct and its severity – were considered when assessing the anti-Semitic workplace behavior, based on the plaintiff’s perceive status as a Jew.
