IN WILLIAMSBURG, an eclectic neighbourhood in Brooklyn, the bathing times at a public swimming pool are dividing hipsters from Hasidic Jews. For 20 years, to accommodate local Orthodox Jewish women whose religious modesty prevents them from swimming in mixed company, the Metropolitan Recreation Centre has reserved time four days each week for a “women’s swim”. But an anonymous complaint this spring prompted New York City’s human-rights commission to scuttle the arrangement, finding that the women’s-only times—a total of 7.25 hours out of the pool’s 90-hour weekly schedule—amounted to illegal discrimination. That decision was put on hold after Dov Hikind, an assemblyman representing another Brooklyn neighbourhood with large numbers of Hasidic Jews, complained.
“Everybody into the pool,” the New York Times editorialised, in response to Mr Hikind’s successful intervention. Continuing to allow women to enjoy exclusive hours in the pool this summer while the city tries to find a compromise is “a capitulation to a theocratic view of government services”. Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil...Continue reading
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