Hasidic Nursery School Fires Teacher For Living With Boyfriend

No to Hatred: The Orthodox Shomrim security patrol will help protect a mosque in the heavily Jewish Hackney section of London. Image by getty images
(JTA) — A teacher at a Jewish nursery school in London claims she was fired for living with her boyfriend.
Zelda de Groen, 24, is suing the Gan Menachem Nursery in Hendon, North London, for more than $26,000 charging religious and sexual discrimination, according to British media.
The nursery for children under the age of 8 is described as “ultra-Orthodox” in the lawsuit.
DeGroen grew up in a haredi Orthodox home in Stamford Hill in London, but left “after many years of significant discontent.” She moved in with her boyfriend in April 2016.
De Groen, who has since married her boyfriend, said managers subjected her to a ‘humiliating’ hour-long interview in which they said it was time for her to get married, the Daily Mail reported. She also described their tone as “threatening.”
“The personal nature of the meeting, were humiliating,” she also said.
Two days after the meeting DeGroen asked her managers for an apology but instead was given a letter notifying her of disciplinary proceedings. She was fired a month later.
The Gan Menachem Nursery denies discrimination.
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