The lawsuit contends that treating Jewish identity as exclusively religious effectively denies the existence of Jewish peoplehood.By Corey Walker, The AlgemeinerNew York City is facing a federal civil rights lawsuit after seven employees of its Department of Health and Mental Hygiene accused the city of discriminating against Jewish workers by refusing to recognize their employee resource group while granting institutional support to six other identity-based organizations.The National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC) filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that city officials excluded HINENU—The Jewish Employee Resource Group—because they considered Jewish identity exclusively religious, disregarding its ethnic, cultural, and ancestral dimensions.The complaint, Cohen v. City of New York, also accuses department officials of retaliating against the group’s leaders after they organized a gathering to mourn Jews murdered at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi Beach, Australia, in December 2025.The dispute raises serious questions about whether New York City applies its workplace diversity and inclusion policies equally when Jewish identity and connections to Israel are involved.According to the complaint, the health department’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) program provides recognized organizations with an agency email account, a SharePoint page, space on the department’s calendar, and an annual budget of $5,000.Despite recognizing six other employee organizations, the department twice rejected HINENU’s application, allegedly explaining that Jewish identity was religious and that employee resource groups could not be organized around religious affiliations.The plaintiffs argue that their proposed organization was explicitly designed around Jewish peoplehood, ancestry, and culture, not religious worship, instruction, or political advocacy.They also point to another recognized employee group organized around the shared ancestry of Indigenous peoples of Southwest Asia and North Africa, arguing that the department’s willingness to recognize that organization demonstrates an inconsistent application of its eligibility standards.The lawsuit contends that treating Jewish identity as exclusively religious effectively denies the existence of Jewish peoplehood, an identity that encompasses shared ancestry, history, culture, and a connection to Israel, the historic homeland of the Jewish people.The allegations become particularly serious when the lawsuit turns to the department’s treatment of HINENU’s leadership following the Bondi Beach attack.After two gunmen murdered 15 Jews attending a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, the group allegedly emailed approximately 85 department employees to mourn the victims and organized an online support session for Jewish colleagues experiencing grief and fear.Rather than allowing the group to continue its activities, the department’s equal employment opportunity director allegedly ordered HINENU to stop using its agency email account.The same official subsequently initiated an investigation into eight of the group’s leaders, accusing them of potential racial and religious discrimination, according to the complaint.The investigation lasted nearly four months. During that period, investigators allegedly questioned group leaders about their views on Zionism and Israel.The department ultimately closed the investigation in June 2026, stating that it was “unable to make findings.”Sixteen days later, the same equal employment opportunity official rejected HINENU’s application for formal recognition in a single sentence, again citing the group’s alleged religious nature.For NJAC, the sequence of events suggests that Jewish employees were subjected to extraordinary scrutiny for activities that other employee resource groups would ordinarily be permitted to undertake.The complaint goes beyond the denial of HINENU’s recognition, alleging that Jewish employees have faced a broader hostile environment within the health department since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.Among the incidents cited are a division-wide message from a deputy commissioner concerning the “settler colonial establishment of Israel,” an agency training session in which a participant reportedly characterized the Oct. 7 massacre as “armed resistance” without recorded objection, and an agency-sponsored lecture at department headquarters featuring allegations against Israel and Israelis.The lecture was organized by the department’s purported Global Oppression Working Group.According to the complaint, an agency official who hosted the event told more than 100 attendees that the group had been “developed in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”That same official allegedly later became the lead complainant in the investigation targeting HINENU’s leadership.The plaintiffs also argue that the department’s conduct reflects a broader municipal environment under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose public criticism of Israel they cite as evidence of hostility toward Jewish peoplehood and the Jewish state’s central place in Jewish identity.Israel is home to approximately half of the world’s Jewish population and holds a unique historical and cultural significance for Jewish communities worldwide.For many Jews, their connection to Israel is an integral component of their identity, irrespective of their religious observance.The distinction between criticism of Israeli government policy and discrimination against Jews because of their connection to Israel is central to the allegations in the case.The lawsuit cites Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the New York State Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, and protections under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.The seven employees are asking the court to order the health department to recognize HINENU under the same conditions afforded to the other employee resource groups.They are also seeking to have the investigation expunged from their employment records and are pursuing compensatory and punitive damages.Alan Scheiner, NJAC’s senior litigation counsel representing the employees, argued that Jewish workers deserve the same institutional support afforded to other ethnic and cultural communities.“The Jewish people should enjoy the same support and the same rights that are afforded by the law and the City to other ethnic and cultural groups,” Scheiner said.NJAC CEO Mark Goldfeder was similarly critical of the city’s alleged treatment of its Jewish employees.“The City told its Jewish employees that every identity counts except theirs, then investigated them for grieving,” Goldfeder said.“City Hall can hold whatever opinions it likes about the Jewish state; it cannot make hostility to the Jewish people a condition of working for New York.”Critics argue that the lawsuit underscores growing concerns among Jewish civil rights advocates that anti-Israel activism can cross the line into discrimination when Jewish employees are questioned about their Zionism, treated differently because of their connection to Israel, or prevented from expressing solidarity with fellow Jews.New York City officials have not publicly responded to the lawsuit as of Thursday.The post New York City faces lawsuit after Department of Health accused of discriminating against Jews appeared first on World Israel News.