Nurse wins 40 grand for being shomer Shabbat

Alisa Dolinsky of Passaic is $40,000 richer after settling a discrimination suit outside of court with Color-Goldwater Specialty Hospital & Nursing Facility on Roosevelt Island. Dolinsky, as the Wall Street Journal reported, sued the hospital after administrators withdrew a job offer when she told them her religion prevented her from working the requisite Saturdays like other nurses there.

New Jersey and New York have laws that require employers to accommodate the religious needs of their employees. However, Dolinsky was not yet an employee of the hospital. One could argue that the hospital was completely within its rights to withdraw the job offer after learning that Dolinsky would not be able to fulfill the required shifts. Maybe they could have worked out an arrangement for Dolinsky to work extra Sundays instead of Saturdays, but in the strictest legal sense, the hospital bore no obligation to do so. Still, the $40,000 settlement may have been a small price to pay to avoid a potentially lengthy and more expensive court battle.

The article has inspired some hateful comments on the WSJ site – against Jews, Bloomberg, and New York City in general. Whether one agrees with Dolinsky or the hospital, some of this is just uncalled for.