Yeshiva University is an Orthodox Jewish institution of higher education in New York — a city with a human rights law intended to ensure that in all but truly private settings, people are protected from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, national origin and sexual orientation.
Yeshiva says the requirement that it recognize a student-led LGBT group amounts to an infringement on its First Amendment rights to practice its religion as it sees fit. We respectfully disagree.
It’s true that Yeshiva — which only grants secular degrees — is in essential ways rooted in faith, as is Fordham in the Bronx and St. John’s in Queens. As such, it properly is and should remain exempt from the law in many ways. It can give Jews preference in employment, housing and, if it wishes, admissions.
