Anne Frank House Banned Employee From Wearing Kippah — Suggested Baseball Cap
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
On his first day of work at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, an employee was told he was not allowed to wear a kippah, the Daily Mail reported.
Barry Vingerling, a twenty-five year old Orthodox Jew, was told by his bosses that wearing the kippah while working “might endanger the neutrality of the foundation which runs the museum and ‘influence its work combating antisemitism,” and that employees were banned from wearing any kind of Jewish symbol.
The museum told Vingerling that he could apply for special permission to wear the kippah. In the meantime, he would be given permission to cover his head with a baseball cap with the logo of the Anne Frank House.
“I work in the house of Anne Frank, who had to hide because of her identity. In that same house I should hide my identity?” Vingerling said.
Following six months of debates, the Anne Frank Foundation decided that Vingerling could wear a kippah to work.
Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
