New York lawsuit: 'modesty signs' offend women

District judge will decide if stores are allowed to hang modesty signs.

Manhattan district judge decided yesterday to allow a hearing of the lawsuit filed by human rights organizations against a number of business owners in Williamsburg, prohibiting the entry of immodest women into stores.

The New York Post devoted a prominent place to the news item, and claimed that this is discrimination against women in general and the secular women in particular.

Human Rights Association Representative Richard Molkowein said that the key question is women who want to buy in the store feel when they see such a sign.

However the businessmen's lawyer, attorney Jay Lefkowitz, representing the shopkeepers, said that in Manhattan and elsewhere throughout the U.S. there are restaurants and shops to which entry is allowed only to those who obey the "code of clothing" of the owners. "I do not see any difference between an upscale restaurant in Manhattan where a strict dress code is customary, and the sign on the entrance to a bakery in Williamsburg. This is a dress code, not discrimination. Those who refuse to give in to the dress code do not go to a restaurant that requires a dress code, those who are not prepared to go to dress modestly should go to a place which does not require a dress code," said Lefkowitz.

Discussion of the matter will arrive in court and be decided during the month of January.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!