A Russian-American Jewish man has filed a lawsuit against a New York City daycare center, over the school’s refusal to permit his son to wear his Star of David necklace
Forty-three-year-old Dmitry Goldin immigrated to the US from Russia as a teenager in 1991. In 2016, after he enrolled his son, Isaac, in the “Bright Minds Center” in Manhattan, Goldin says staff members barred his son from wearing a Star of David pendant.
The daycare center called the necklace a “safety issue”, and ordered Isaac not to bring it to school. When he wore it again, staff members “forcibly removed” it, the suit claims, and threatened to expel him.
For Goldin, the experience was reminiscent of anti-Semitic bullying he suffered while growing up in the Soviet Union.
“When I was in school in Russian kids would beat me up and spit on me for being Jewish, Goldin told the New York Post. “When you spend a whole childhood in this condition and it happens when you’re an adult it brings it all back.”
But school officials dismissed Goldin’s claims, saying the ban was a matter of physical safety, arguing that the star’s corners were not safe around small children.
“I’m a Jew who came from Russia,” said Marina Korostyshevskaya, one of the administrators of the daycare. “Believe me, I do wear my Star of David, but it’s not safe to wear around kids. Any normal adult would understand, it has sharp corners.”
Isaac has since enrolled in a separate institution which allows him to wear the necklace.