Payout for teacher who was sacked by Jewish school for ‘living in sin’
A TEACHER at a jewish nursery who was sacked after parents complained she was ‘living in sin’ has won a discrimination claim.
Zelda de Groen, 24, is set to receive thousands of pounds in damages and costs after she was told it was time to tie the knot.
She was subjected to an hour-long interview by women bosses who told her cohabiting or having children out of wedlock would ‘not be tolerated’.
Miss de Groen said she was left ‘super-mortified’ when asked why she had not yet married.
She has won her case against the ultra- orthodox Gan Menachem Nursery in Hendon, north London, for religious and sex discrimination as well as harassment.
Watford Employment Tribunal ruled a male employee would not have been treated the same way.
The judge also accused her bosses, headmistress Miriam Lieberman and manager Dina Toron, of hypocrisy after they told Miss de Groen to lie about her living arrangements.
Miss de Groen grew up in a strict jewish family in north London but left ‘after many years of significant discontent’, spending three years in Israel. On her return to Britain in 2012, she got a job at Gan Menachem through her mother’s friendship with the head teacher.
In April last year she moved in with her business consultant boyfriend Oz Waknin in Pimlico, central London.
The following month, the couple – who are now married – were invited to a barbecue attended by a number of parents of her nursery children.
Miss de Groen let slip she was living with her boyfriend and a handful of parents complained, including one who suggested they would pull their child out of the nursery if she continued as a teacher. In june Miss de Groen was taken out of a class to be interviewed, and was later sacked for bringing the nursery into disrepute. Miss de Groen said she did not know she had fallen foul of the nursery’s ‘ultra- orthodox teaching and rules’. judge Andrew Clarke QC said the couple ‘ made no secret of their living together’. But Miss de Groen had been told by her bosses to say she was not living with her boyfriend despite them ‘knowing full well that she was’.
He said asking Miss de Groen to lie was ‘repugnant to generally accepted standards of morality’ and accused Mrs Toron and Mrs Lieberman of behaving like an ‘overbearing mother and elder sister’ while trying to push their religious beliefs.
‘ They would not have so behaved towards a male teacher,’ the judge added. ‘ She felt as if she was back at school or being probed and questioned by her ultra-orthodox mother.’
The nursery had argued it acted on the advice of a human resources company.
Miss de Groen was claiming more than £20,000 in compensation. A hearing will decide the final amount next year.
‘Questioned by her mother’