Temple Emanu-El – the world’s largest Jewish house of worship and the chicest synagogue in Manhattan – has been slapped with a $32 million lawsuit by two middle-aged former employees who claim they were canned because they weren’t “young and hip” and Jewish.
Marion Hedger and Phyllis Treichel, both of whom worked in clerical jobs at the registrar’s office in the famed Fifth Avenue synagogue’s religious school, said they were stellar workers who were regularly lauded by the temple’s higher-ups for their outstanding work.
One May 2007 letter written by head Rabbi David Posner extolled Hedger, 49, as “bright,” “very astute” and “an excellent self-starter,” according to the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, at around the same time, Treichel, 52, was praised as “a find” and a “needle in a haystack” by her boss. But both she and Hedger were fired that same month.
The suit alleges that their troubles began in the summer of 2006, when the temple’s parents organization formed a “Re-Visioning Committee” and started conducting focus groups to spruce up the synagogue’s image.
“After the meetings of the focus groups . . . Congregation Emanu-El adopted a discriminatory policy that its employees and its image should be ‘young and hip,’ ” the Manhattan Supreme Court suit says.
One 50-something librarian worried about getting the ax because she was no longer “young and cute,” the court papers allege.
The school principal, Frances Oelbaum, who was 54, was let go and was replaced with a 39-year-old.
“The ultimate goal was to replace and remove its older workers with young Jewish workers,” according to the suit.
After Hedger and Treichel were canned, one of their jobs was filled by a Jewish woman in her 30s, the suit says.
“To have this happen in a place of worship is outrageous and shameful,” said Murray Schwartz, their lawyer.
Calls to Temple Emanu-El were not returned.