A Jewish nurse from Long Island claims bosses at NYU Langone Hospital in Mineola reprimanded her and cut her pay after she voiced support for Israel, according to a lawsuit.
Staff nurse Leviah Ehrlich posted on her private Instagram after Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people in their surprise Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“You either stand with Israel or you stand with terrorism,” Ehrlich, 27, wrote in a message that included two symbols: the Star of David and the emblem of terror group Hamas.
A second post the same day included a photo of an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas — who happened to be her former high school classmate, she said in court papers.
About a month later, the hospital’s human resources reps hauled her in and claimed someone complained about Ehrlich’s post for being “wrought with bias and hatred,” she said in the Brooklyn Federal Court filing.
In December, they summoned her again and gave a written warning — and forced her to make an apology post using their “prescribed language” — which included phrases like “innocent people from both Israel and Palestine,” she said in legal papers.
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Adding the ultimate insult, NYU Langone bosses waited until January to tell Ehrlich that her post would cost her a $6,000 raise she’d been given a month before the Hamas attack — and that she would have “to repay the compensation previously awarded.”
Ehlrich, who was asked to give back more than $11,000 to her employer, “did not engage in hateful or biased behavior, but was in fact, the subject of discriminatory treatment and animus based on her religion,” according to the lawsuit.
She’s seeking unspecified damages.
NYU Langone declined comment on the lawsuit.
