NEW YORK — Today, State Senator Brad Hoylman, Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger, and Senate Higher Education Chair Toby Ann Stavisky sent a letter to Yeshiva University (YU) President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman condemning the discriminatory treatment of their LGBTQ students and demanding an accounting of public funds that appear to have been obtained by misrepresentations from YU. The university has been sued by the YU Pride Alliance for violating the New York City Human Rights Law by refusing to recognize the club.

The letter highlights misleading statements the university made to the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) to obtain state financial assistance assuring DASNY that YU was an “nonsectarian, not-for-profit institution of higher education” and agreed funds would not be “used for sectarian religious instruction or as a place of religious worship or in connection with any part of a program of a school or department of divinity for any religious denomination.” In contrast, YU has argued to the courts that it is exempt from the Human Rights Law because it is a “religious corporation.”

The letter from the senators is attached.

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