Anne Frank House Banned Employee From Wearing Kippah — Suggested Baseball Cap
Anne Frank House in Amsterdam Image by AnneFrank.org
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 hcohen@forward.com
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
