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John David Brown recalls the precise moment he decided to become an observant Jew. It was the first time he attended Shabbat services at his old congregation, Beth Jacob, and the Torah was taken out of the ark and a ray of sunlight bathed the bimah.
“That was it,” he said. “From that moment, I was hooked.”
But Mr. Brown, a Northeast Baltimore native who was born a Baptist and now attends Suburban Orthodox Synagogue, admits there are times when he wonders if converting was worth it all.
“I used to feel guilty for driving into work and seeing people walk to shul on Shabbat,” he said. “Now I feel guilty because I lost my job. My family and I have paid a high price for all of this.”
A recently divorced Greenspring father of two sons, Mr. Brown, 37, says he updated a complaint earlier this year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against his former employer, Towson University, alleging that the college discriminated against him based on religion. For 16 years, Mr. Brown worked for the Towson University Police Dept., reaching the rank of corporal.
(Mary Tiernan, spokesperson for the EEOC’s Philadelphia District office, said the commission is prohibited by federal law from confirming or denying whether complaints have been submitted.)
In November 2006, Mr. Brown and Towson reached an agreement that ended his original 2004 complaint with the EEOC that the police force was not accommodating his decision against working on Shabbat and religious holidays. While Mr. Brown agreed to be suspended six days without pay, the university promised to work with him on his need for taking off days for religious practice.
But in August 2008, Towson University Police Chief Bernard J. Gerst fired Mr. Brown, on grounds that he missed days of work on which he was previously scheduled. (Mr. Gerst did not return phone calls from the Baltimore Jewish Times. Towson spokesperson Marina Cooper said only Michael A. Anselmi, the college’s legal counsel, could comment on the case, and he was unavailable this week.)
Mr. Brown, who filed a complaint with the EEOC shortly after the firing, has been unemployed since his termination.The Baltimore Jewish Times recently spoke with him.
Did you like your job?
It was great. I started there as a police aide. I was a security guard.
Basically, I locked up buildings and wrote tickets, did some crowd control and parking enforcement. I made it to dispatcher after a couple of years and then became an entry-level police officer.
When did things change?
In 2000, when I made the decision to convert and asked for permission to start wearing a kippah and tzitzit with my uniform. My sergeant started making fun of me, and one time he even made ‘Sieg heil’ comments. I complained to the university and my commanders, and they did nothing. He was eventually transferred to a different shift.
Are you alleging there’s institutional anti-Semitism there?
I don’t know if they’re anti-Semitic, but this is what they did to me. Make your own decision. … One time, a patrolman and I were just having a discussion about the different groups in Judaism and he said Hitler was right and they should start with the Chasidim first. ...
In the 2006 agreement, I was allowed to take leave without pay for Shabbos and holidays. But if I put in for Shabbos, it was denied. If it was for vacation, there was a blanket approval.
Were you unable to find colleagues to switch shifts with you?
I had a friend and we’d do that, but they felt it made it a skewed schedule. I showed them you’d actually have more coverage and manpower than you need, that it benefited me and them. I was coming in Saturday nights and Sunday mornings, and I did a year’s worth of scheduling in advance. Everything flowed departmentally, but they still used everything against me.
The university says I misinterpreted the agreement, but I tried to follow it the best I could. I couldn’t always find someone to take my shift. According to the police manual, the sergeant is supposed to do the scheduling. But all the responsibility fell on me. On paper, the agreement looked good. But in practice, it wasn’t.
Why do you think Towson wouldn’t accommodate you?
Police officers are creatures of nature. They short-circuit if there’s a change in the nature. You do as you’re told. If someone wants something out of the norm, it throws them for a loop.
Towson is a bureaucracy. Once a decision comes down, you hunker down until someone like the EEOC or a judge tells you you’re wrong.
Were you stunned when you were fired?
My attorney and I thought we’d get another agreement in the midnight hour. But I went to a hearing board, being judged by two police commanders and a supervisor from other agencies, and it didn’t go my way.
Why has the EEOC claim languished for two years?
Part of the reason is because I went through a back injury and a divorce before and after [the firing], so it took a while to get all the papers out. I’m writing an affidavit right now for the EEOC complaint.
What have you been doing since your termination?
For a year, I was on Workers’ Compensation for my back injury. Then, I went on unemployment and have conducted a job search. I’ve applied for 285 jobs, in security, paralegal, police forces, with no results.
Has the Jewish community supported you?
That’s a difficult question. It’s been hard to make rent month to month. I think it’s great there are Jewish organizations to help people, but with the exception of my shul and Ahavas Yisrael, it hasn’t gone too well.
Do you plan to eventually take this case to court?
I’d like to see a resolution that’s amicable for the university and myself. If they called and offered me my job, I’d be foolish not to take it. But they’d have to work with me on Shabbat.
Why not just move on?
Since I was in high school, I’ve wanted to either be a cop or go into the army. Being an officer was my dream. I want to work in law enforcement, so I’m going to fight until someone hears me.