ONLY SIXTY-ONE ASSISTED LIVING RESIDENTS
...and more than that in staff
Gay Fight
Same-sex couples bring
Yeshiva U. back to court.
JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
y
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Isn't that exactly the kind of care you want and expect also?
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attention for each resident. We know each resident, we know each
resident's family. We know you would want to know us.
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www.detroitjewishnews.com <
eshiva University is
enmeshed in its own battle
over gay and lesbian couples
less than a month after the
Reform movement affirmed the right
of its rabbis to officiate at same-gen-
der commitment ceremonies.
Two lesbian students and a gay-
lesbian-bisexual student group are
suing Yeshiva University's Albert
Einstein College of Medicine in New
York for barring same-sex couples
from living in its subsidized, on-
campus married-student housing.
Gay and lesbian students at the uni-
versity, like other students, are eligi-
ble for university housing, but their
non-student partners are not.
While Yeshiva University is a non-
sectarian institution except for its
Orthodox rabbinical school, it is the
oldest and largest American universi-
ty under Jewish auspices. According
to Orthodox interpretation, Jewish
law strongly prohibits homosexual
relationships. Orthodox leaders have
been outspoken in condemning the
Reform rabbis' recent resolution on
same-sex unions:
Although the case was dismissed in
New York's Supreme Court on March
15, 1999, the students — backed by
the American Civil Liberties Union —
are appealing. They had their first
court hearing April 19 before a panel
of judges in the New York Supreme
Court's Appellate Division.
The students' attorney, James
Esseks, argued that by requiring stu-
dents to present a marriage certificate
in order to receive couples housing,
the university's policy has a disparate
impact on homosexual couples who
are unable to marry. Thus, he
argued, it violates city and state
human rights laws.
Yeshiva's attorney, Mark Jacoby,
said that the university has a limited
amount of student housing available,
and while it can provide housing to
the children and spouses of students,
it cannot "open that up to all people
who want to live with a partner."
7
The university does not permit
unmarried heterosexual partners to
live together in university houSing.
Asked by one of the judges if the
university would recognize a same-
sex marriage certificate from a gov-
ernment that recognizes same-sex
marriages, Jacoby said it would, but
Esseks stated that no state or nation
recognizes gay marriages.
The Vermont state senate last
week approved "civil unions" giving
same-gender couples all the benefits
of marriage under state law, but the
vote recognized these unions only in
Vermont.
The plaintiffs do not have legal
domestic partnership agreements,
and the university would not recog-
nize it if they did.
It is not clear when the judges will
issue a ruling.
During last week's hearing, the
plaintiffs and about 15 friends sat
quietly in seats reserved for
observers. One of the plaintiffs,
fourth-year medical student Sara
Levin, 26, held the hand of her part-
ner, Carla Richmond.
The other plaintiffs are: third-year
medical student Maggie Jones, who
has broken up with her domestic
partner since the case was dismissed
last year; and Gila Wildfire, acting in
her capacity as secretary of the
Einstein Association of Gays,
Lesbians and Bisexuals.
Although when she enrolled she
knew university housing was restrict-
ed to students and their spouses,
Levin said she had "assumed they
would accept a domestic partner-
ship." Richmond, a social worker
who has been Levin's partner for
eight years, said the two have been
living in Brooklyn — a lengthy com-
mute — because they were unable to
find safe, affordable housing close to
the medical school's Bronx campus.
Interviewed after the hearing,
their lawyer said that other New
York universities with married-stu-
dent housing, such as Columbia,
make those facilities available to gay
couples.
Yeshiva officials declined to corn-
ment on the case.
.
❑