In a case that could pit civil rights concerns against government-protected religious accommodation, the Rockland County chapter of the NAACP has filed a complaint against an Orthodox-owned medical clinic, calling on the facility to stay open on Saturdays, provide diversity training to its employees, and hire more staffers from the minority community.

The complaint, filed with the state Division of Human Rights by the NAACP of Spring Valley, accuses the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Clinic in Spring Valley of ''unlawful discriminatory practice.''

''The willful closing of the clinic on Saturdays serves no other business purpose than to impose the extremity of [the owner's] religious beliefs in Hasidic Judaism on the community it serves which consists of predominantly African Americans and Hispanics,'' the complaint states, adding that the clinic ''engag[es] in disparate treatment of people who believe in a religion other than Hasidic Judaism, and … [fail]s to accommodate other religious beliefs.''

The defendant is Monsey businessman Mendel Hoffman, managing director of the Spring Valley clinic and of another in the area, about a mile away. The Spring Valley facility opened two years ago on Route 59, which is near large haredi and minority populations. The clinic has been closed on weekends since its began operations.

According to the complaint, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People took part in discussions last spring, conducted at the office of the Spring Valley mayor, with the clinic's owner and management, to ''reasonably accommodate'' the needs of the clinic's minority patients. Hoffman subsequently indicated that he could not open the clinic on Saturdays ''as he did not get permission from his rabbinic authority,'' the complaint states.

The complaint does not cite specific instances of discrimination. Willie Trotman, president of the NAACP chapter, who filed the complaint, said it is intended to make the clinic's black and Hispanic patients feel more comfortable, and to make its services more accessible. ''People get sick seven days a week,'' he said. ''We're not alleging [discrimination]'' against or specific harm to patients unable to receive treatment on Saturdays.

As a recipient of government funds – the clinic accepts Medicare and Medicaid payments – the facility should be open during hours that do not discriminate against members of any religious group, Trotman said; i.e., the clinic should be forced to stay open on Saturdays.

Several Jewish authorities on law and religion said the complaint has a weak legal foundation, and makes demands on the clinic's Orthodox owners that halacha, or Jewish law, do not support. But the complaint could create a dangerous precedent if its claims are upheld by the Division of Human Rights, they said, adding that a Jewish business can no more be compelled to open on Saturday than one owned by religious Christians could be forced to open on Sundays.

''The complaint has nothing to do with ethics or with medical responsibility,'' said Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a Talmud lecturer at Yeshiva University and an authority on Jewish medical ethics.

''You have a family physician — does he take off one day a week?'' asked Rabbi Tendler. Halacha, he said, does not require a Sabbath-observant physician — or in this case, a clinic – to work every day as long as ''he has somebody covering for him'' to handle emergency cases on Shabbat. ''You're not endangering anyone's life.

''There's an emergency room that's open'' at hospitals in the area, said the rabbi, who lives in Monsey.

Rabbi Tendler said the complaint borders on outright anti-Semitism and may ''blacken the reputation of frum Jews.''

The general counsel of the American Jewish Congress, Marc Stern, said ''I don't think there's much legal merit to the complaints.''

David Zwiebel, Agudath Israel of America's executive vice president for government and public affairs, called the NAACP charges ''one of the most outrageous claims I have ever heard. I think the NAACP has done a disservice to community relations.''

Zwiebel, an attorney, said Agudah has advised the clinic's owners on a response to the complaint.

The clinic, a private business, ''is not required to stay open on Saturdays,'' or on Sundays, he said. ''There is nothing that requires a place like this to be open on the weekend.

Robert Lewis, the clinic's attorney, said the owners asked their rabbinic advisers about the permissibility of staying open on Saturdays, with non-Jewish employees staffing the facility, after the NAACP first approached the clinic several months ago. The rabbinic advisors said no, Lewis said.

The clinic is a ''full service'' outpatient facility, serving some 250 persons a day, with physicians trained in several medical specialties, he said, adding that it often serves as a primary care center or emergency room for poor patients. He said the Division of Human Rights, following an investigation, ''may have the power'' to order ''an adjustment'' of the clinic's operating hours, requiring it to open on Shabbat.

He is to file a response to the complaint this week.

The NAACP complaint does not reflect an undercurrent of poor relations between Orthodox Jews and minority group members in the Spring Valley area, said Shimon Pepper, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Rockland County.

''Relations have been good,'' Pepper said. ''A lot of minority groups have gone to the Rockland Holocaust and Studies Center [in Spring Valley] to see the activities.'' n