A Jewish nurse is suing NYU Langone Health after hospital administrators told her to apologize for posting pro-Israel content on her private Instagram days after Oct. 7, 2023, and requested that she return her most recent bonus and raise.
Leviah Ehrlich, a 27-year-old nurse at NYU Langone Hospital — Long Island, filed the lawsuit mid-August, claiming that the medical center discriminated against her on the basis of religion. NYU Langone, which has yet to file a response in court, did not respond to WSN’s requests for comment.
Ehrlich had posted two images on her private Instagram account “on or about” Oct. 12, 2023 — one condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and another of her former high school classmate, an Israeli soldier who had been “kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas.”
“You either stand with Israel or you stand with terrorism,” read the first image posted by Ehrlich, which also featured the Star of David and a symbol representing Hamas.
About a month later, Ehrlich was allegedly contacted by the hospital’s employee and labor relations director Derek Forte regarding an “anonymous complaint” flagging her post. She said Forte told her that the post was “wrought with bias and hatred” and questioned her ability to provide “compassionate and equitable care to patients regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or religious beliefs.”
Ehrlich claimed that in December 2023, Nurse Manager Vanita Morris demanded that she sign a written warning admitting that she posted “intimidating and hateful material.” She said she also had to issue a written apology on Instagram promising that she will “empathize with all the innocent people who are victim to this tragedy and hope for a solution that brings peace for everyone.”
After signing the warning, which stipulated that “any future incidents of this nature” could result in termination or loss of pay, Ehrlich said that she suffered a severe panic attack and emotional distress.
“In truth, there was no ‘incident,’ only protected expression based on deeply held religious and cultural beliefs,” the complaint reads. “Defendants’ actions were motivated by plaintiff’s Jewish identity and her expression of solidarity with the Jewish people.”
In September 2023, Ehrlich’s performance rating of “3” awarded her a $6,610 bonus and a $6,720 raise. However, her rating allegedly fell to a “2” following the Instagram post, and in January 2024, the hospital demanded that she return both the bonus and the raise, according to the lawsuit. Ehrlich claimed that her performance rating was “purposefully lowered.”
NYU Langone has faced several social media-related controversies since Oct. 7. In November 2023, Zaki Masoud — a doctor at the same hospital — faced termination after posting a photo of Palestinians reading “Let them call it terrorism” and “We call it liberation” on his private Instagram story. He was reinstated after an online petition demanding his return garnered over 100,000 signatures.
Similarly, Jewish cancer researcher Benjamin Neel, who formerly worked at the Perlmutter Cancer Center, sued NYU Langone after he was fired for social media posts flagged as “racist and “anti-Arab.” NYU Langone claimed Neel violated the institution’s social media policy that prohibits sharing posts deemed “discriminatory” according to Neel’s lawyer, Milton Williams Jr.
“NYU has taken an unbalanced approach to its discipline of employees who post content to social media,” Williams told WSN.
He said that NYU Langone’s policy was “clearly discriminatory” because it failed “to apply the policy to other employees who engaged in similar speech, but with a viewpoint opposite of Dr. Neel’s.”
Ehrlich’s lawsuit also asserts that NYU’s actions represent “selective enforcement against Jewish staff” because punishments against two Jewish employees — her and Neel — have not been retracted, unlike Masoud’s case.
“Universities are not free to discipline employees in an uneven and biased manner based on speech favored by whomever is leading the university at a given moment in time,” Williams said. “As far as I’m concerned, this is a case that will be fought all the way through.”
Ehrlich’s lawyer told WSN that he could not comment on the case.
Contact Leena Ahmed at [email protected].
