New Yorker sues landlord over no-mezuzah rule
Arye Sachs of North Babylon comes home from a trip to find his 'priceless, irreplaceable' heirloom missing, and an eviction notice
An Orthodox Jewish man from suburban New York City sued his landlord for demanding that he remove the mezuzah from his apartment’s doorpost.
Arye Sachs of North Babylon on Long Island filed a lawsuit this week in Brooklyn federal court, the New York Post reported.
In the lawsuit, Sachs said his landlord, Margarita Pascale, 57, ordered him to remove the mezuzah several times and then evicted him, saying “this is a Christian residence” and that if the mezuzah is not taken down, Sachs will be “on the street.”
The mezuzah was missing after Sachs returned home from a trip last month, according to the Post.
The lawsuit calls the mezuzah, a family heirloom that came from his Holocaust-survivor grandfather, a “priceless, irreplaceable protector.”
Sachs in the lawsuit credits the mezuzah with his successful recovery from three strokes and “one of the most amicable and peaceful divorces known to man.”