Non-Jew Can Sue Over Anti-Semitic Comments, New Jersey Court Rules

You don't have to be Jewish to suffer from anti-Semitic slurs, according to a new court ruling.

Arutz Sheva reports that a New Jersey state appeals court reversed a lower court's decision and decided Myron Cowher can sue his former employees under the state's anti-discrimination laws.

In the suit, Cowher claims his former supervisors, Jay Unangst and Nick Gingerelli, subjected him to regular ridicule, including telling him, "Only a Jew would argue over his hours" and "If you were a German, we would burn you in the oven."

NBC New York reports that the judges didn't focus on the merits of Cowher's claims, but rather on the "proper question" of what effect the supervisors' alleged comments would have on "a reasonable Jew." Cowher's actual background is German-Irish and Lutheran.

Cowher's attorney, Robert Scirocco, told msnbc.com that his client had to endure a "barrage of verbal attacks on a regular basis.”

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[shrlnb]

04:33 PM on 04/28/2012

Great now non-Jews can sue Jews who slam Islam.

[Tsvi1]

11:09 AM on 04/29/2012

Only if the Jews pick you out and make fun of you with anti-muslim slurs.

[pynecastle]

01:47 PM on 04/28/2012

If a Palestinian-American were harassed with slurs against his ethnicity, could he sue over anti-semitic comments?

[Tsvi1]

11:13 AM on 04/29/2012

Antisemetic has two meanings: The definition created when it was first made up, and the actual meaning of the words.
The first use of "antiemitism" was in the 19th century in Germany where political candidates would run as "antisemetic" candidates, meaning that they promise not to allow Jews to become citizens (Jews did not become citizens in Germany until the 1880s), and then later to restrict Jews from society or worse.
The words themselves are far broader, where anti is against and semetisim would refer to al semetic people. However, that is not the historical usage. Many words, such as Peruse do not mean what they are supposed to mean. Defenition wise it means to read deeply, but usage turned it to something more akin to flipping through or shallow reading.
In linguistics: Usage>definition

[Eugene Dubnov]

12:33 PM on 04/25/2012

"Non-Jew Can Sue Over Anti-Semitic Comments" - And why not? It sounds perfectly logical. I don't have to be black to sue somebody whose racism I've witnessed and whose black victims are too intimidated to do it themselves.

[dadw5boys]

07:40 AM on 04/25/2012

Why is there a pic of Ronald Mc Donald as Hitler ?
Oh so the "Corporate Person " can sue ?
Uh oh Homer Simpson will be living in the Court Room .

[mflorian]

01:56 AM on 04/28/2012

They're always putting unrelated videos down below. They think it'll make people wander the site more. It's irritating.

[Abnormal Wrench]

01:00 AM on 04/25/2012

And there goes the first amendment.

[PoliticsHater]

01:21 PM on 04/25/2012

That was harassment and Cowher should sue the hell out of them. He should've complained first before suing. The company also has potential liability..

[Abnormal Wrench]

01:25 AM on 04/26/2012

"He should've complained first before suing."

You think?

[QuakerJewish]

07:44 PM on 04/26/2012

Nothing about the ammendment, or the concept, says free speech is without consequences when it does harm. Our country has had libel and slander laws as long as we have had the right to free speech. Our founding fathers never intended speech to be without personal responsibility.

So, no. You are over reacting.

[Abnormal Wrench]

12:37 AM on 04/27/2012

I will take your legal council as the value it was offered for.

[jjordande]

11:05 PM on 04/24/2012

The real message is hidden in the fact the reference had to deal with simply mentioning Jew negatively at all. There's no way a Black person claiming he was repeatedly called a greasy whop Italian the ruling would have been the same.

[Billy Banter]

08:31 PM on 04/27/2012

Yes, they are training the gentiles to react to anti semitism. Part of Noahide training.

[Anybodyseenthepopos]

02:44 PM on 04/24/2012

Abusive conduct by one's supervisors should certainly be something you can sue your employer for.
But I don't think calling a white person the NWord is a racist crime.

Hurtful, hateful, insipid, disgusting, and the promotion of hateful racial stereotyping in general yes. But I don't think it's discriminatory in specific.

Same goes for this.

[phal4875]

02:07 PM on 04/24/2012

It defies rational belief that someone's supervisors would threaten to burn him in an oven. Are these bosses even sane?

[QuakerJewish]

08:05 PM on 04/26/2012

They were bullying the employee.

[lawdini]

12:13 PM on 04/24/2012

This decision is good news for NJ employees. Whether you are actually Jewish, or Muslim, or gay, or disabled, or whether your boss just thinks you are, he or she shouldn't be able to discriminate against you. Makes perfect sense to me.

http://www.newjerseyemploymentlawyerblog.com/2012/04/nj_court_expands_definition_of.html

[ConnieDr]

09:48 AM on 04/24/2012

Making comments like that I'd like to know what kind of company this employer ran?

[ThinkCreeps]

12:53 AM on 04/24/2012

This guy is the guy directly affected by the alleged bullying.
The bullies allegedly thought he was jewish.
Whether he's jewish or not isn't really the point.

[helenwheels74]

12:40 PM on 04/24/2012

exactly, just as some not-so-masculine boys and men are bullied and called homophobic names, even though they're straight. it still inflicts emotional harm.

[Killermolls44]

03:08 AM on 04/25/2012

It's stereotyping at its worst.

[Hillbilly49]

10:18 PM on 04/23/2012

Such as deal !

[Jeannette Lacey]

01:44 AM on 04/24/2012

I adore your sick sense of humor - please don't change!

[aztrukin]

10:01 PM on 04/23/2012

I would award him a class in comebacks for compensation.

[QuakerJewish]

08:15 PM on 04/26/2012

For an employer? Did you miss the power relationship or the bullying aspect behind this decision?

I bet yes, it went right over your head. But just in case, Aztrukin, what would be one of those comebacks to deal with this type of situation, (without getting fired, of course).

[aztrukin]

08:56 PM on 04/26/2012

Here is my comeback. Note to moderators/managers, this is a comeback and in no way represents a statement lacking respect for any person. That being said, here you go. "I got your Jew hangin right here, and I burned it in your wife's hot box last night". At that point, either you will be fired or respected for giving it as good as you can take it. If you are fired, go collect unemployment. I personally would hate to work with you, no personality or sense of humor. I work in construction and we throw insults daily and it is considered a sign of friendship. You may not like it but too bad.

[florencebrady]

08:51 PM on 04/23/2012

I can't comment on the "merits" of the case, because anything I write would be misinterpreted.

But if he wins the case, I see thousands of salivating lawyers ready to take on the next employer who says anything not "politically correct"

[phal4875]

02:09 PM on 04/24/2012

Do you really view not threatening to burn someone in an oven as "politically correct?" If so, what would you see as beyond the pale?

[florencebrady]

09:47 PM on 04/24/2012

Of course its politically incorrect and personally abhorent.

Its not about that. Its about suing over everything that is said, every time somebody falls, every time someone's dog poops on your lawn.

Where does it end? How do businesses grow and the economy recover when every hateful remark becomes a lawsuit?

I've been involved in legal reform and seen the grief, the stress, the ruined lives of people involved in lawsuits because somebody was "offended" by a hateful comment.

I've seen people who could divorce amicably turn into mortal enemies when the divorce lawyers get involved.

[Lon]

02:31 PM on 04/24/2012

Yeah people will be afraid to suggest that mass murder of people of a given ethnicity is a good thing. Who wants to live in a world like that.

[florencebrady]

09:49 PM on 04/24/2012

Dear Lon,

Please read my response to phal 4875.

Thank you

[lowrodiay65]

08:37 PM on 04/23/2012

The whole anti-semitic thing is nuts.

[QuakerJewish]

08:34 PM on 04/26/2012

That is not what this is about at all. It is about verbal assaults and bullying that involves hateful speech. The ruling means one does not have to belong to the class or group the bullying or assaulting speech attacks with. It recognizes that the damage can be the same.