Tiffany & Co. Employee Claims She Was Fired For Saying That Jews Killed Jesus
A former employee of Tiffany & Co. is claiming that she was discriminated against and fired after she told two other employees that Jews were responsible for killing Jesus. Kristin Rightnour has since filed a discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit against the jeweler, claiming that she did nothing wrong in having a conversation with two other Tiffany employees, one of whom filed a complaint.
According to TMZ, while working at Tiffany as the former director of marketing, Kristin Rightnour said to two other Tiffany employees that Catholics believe that Jews killed Jesus. Rightnour claims that she also missed out on a $42,000 bonus from Tiffany when one of the employees (reportedly one was Jewish, and the other Catholic) complained to the Tiffany HR department that they were offended.
Rightnour claims that she denied to Tiffany HR that she said that “Jews killed Jesus,” but rather that she claimed that “Catholics believe that Jews killed Jesus.”
Tiffany & Co. — Ex-Employee Sues Over Jews and Jesus https://t.co/13Ko1UKbaJ
— POWER 103.5 (@power1035) May 16, 2016
The Daily Mail is reporting that after meeting with Tiffany HR, Rightnour was fired for the discussion about Jews and the death of Jesus, but first she claims that Tiffany & Co. pushed her out. Thirty-five-year-old Kristin Rightnour, who is Catholic, claims that Tiffany fired her unfairly after a conversation about Easter plans took an odd turn, but first they gave her poor reviews and denied her a promotion and a raise she claims she deserved.
Rightnour claims that she explained the “crucifixion story” to the Jewish Tiffany employee after she was asked about the death of Jesus. The Jewish Tiffany employee then allegedly laughed the whole situation off.
“They didn’t teach us any of this in Hebrew school!”
Rightnour is now seeking damages from Tiffany, who claims that she was put on a one-year probation, given an average review, not promoted, and then fired by Tiffany within a year. She claims it is all because of the comments about Jews and the death of Jesus.
Tiffany and Co. exec claims firing for alleged Jews killed Jesus comment https://t.co/PGFnrnIEzd
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) May 12, 2016
In her complaint against Tiffany, Kristin Rightnour’s lawyer’s claim that she was treated unfairly.
“What you have here is an employer engaging in a systematic, yet brutally transparent scheme to punish an accomplished management-level employee for raising a good faith complaint – that she was treated disparately because of her religion.”
https://twitter.com/NoahFairbanks/status/732112562033037312
The Times of Israel claims that Kristin Rightnour, who claims that she is a devout Catholic, says that she did not personally make accusations about Jews in the crucifixion of Jesus while an employee at Tiffany & Co., and that at the time, the Jewish employee of Tiffany was not offended.
The lawsuit against Tiffany was filed by Rightnour in Manhattan last week after she was fired by the jeweler last August. Rightnour’s lawyers commented that the other Tiffany employee asked for an explanation about the crucifixion of Jesus in terms of the Easter story, and Rightnour simply repeated the theory held by many Catholics that the Jewish people were responsible for the death of Jesus and says that it is “indeed a standard Catholic belief.”
https://twitter.com/ayo_RAF/status/732213932614508550
The amount of money being sought by Kristin Rightnour from Tiffany & Co. has not been shared by Rightnour or her attorney, Alexander Coleman of Borelli and Associates.
Do you think that Tiffany & Co. fired Kristin Rightnour for her comments about Jews and the crucifixion of Jesus, or do you think that Tiffany & Co believes there is more to the story? Should expressing religious beliefs get you fired from a job?
[Photo by Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images]
