 מצורף קובץברענג די נייעס בשלימות:
Rabbi wins coffee discrimination case
BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO
STAFF WRITER
June 4, 2005
It was just a simple cup of coffee.
But in November 1992, when Rabbi Israel Steinberg asked to have his in a disposable paper cup because he observed kosher dietary laws, it appeared to be too much to ask the manager of the Nations Cafe on First Avenue. Steinberg, 69, of Borough Park, never got his coffee. The manager of the Nations Cafe wouldn't serve him and threw him out, officials said.
But after a 13-year battle, Steinberg finally got a sweetener when the state Division of Human Rights ruled that he had been discriminated against by being denied his coffee.
As a result, UN Plaza Diner Corp., the corporate owner of the restaurant at the time of the incident, was ordered on May 27 to pay Steinberg $500 for the "mental anguish he suffered" because of the discriminatory conduct.
The record in the case, the commission ruled, showed that the restaurant made Steinberg feel unwelcome because of his religious beliefs.
"It's the principle," Steinberg, the rabbi at Seaside Jewish Center in Rockaway Park, said Friday. "People have to learn to respect each other and not to discriminate."
According to the ruling, restaurant manager Nicholas Kalas told Steinberg, who was born in Israel in 1936, to "get out" when the rabbi insisted on being served his coffee in a disposable cup.
Steinberg explained in an interview that Jews who strictly observe kosher laws will not consume food from porcelain or other dishes that may have been washed with non-kosher food remnants. After seeing paper cups behind the restaurant counter, Steinberg said he asked to have his coffee served in one.
According to Steinberg, Kalas told him he had to drink his coffee outside. "I am not a dog to drink it outside," Steinberg said he told Kalas.
It was then that Kalas threw him out and Steinberg, who was wearing a yarmulke at the time, said he was humiliated. Ironically, Steinberg was on his way to a conference on anti-Semitism when he stopped for the cup of coffee.
Robert Miller, a member of the Manhattan law firm of Reed Smith, LLP, represented Steinberg pro bono.
"It was never the money," Miller said Friday about why Steinberg pressed the case. Instead, it was about public places making reasonable accommodations for people's religions, the attorney said.
At the Nations Cafe, general manager Mike Aronis said the eatery has been under new ownership since 2000. He stressed that regardless of the old policies, things are different and that no questions are asked if a customer wants paper cups and plates.
Kalas couldn't be reached for comment.
http://www.nynewsday.com/nyc-cup0604,0,7359873.story?coll=nyc-homepage-breaking2
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