Orthodox Woman Wins Right to Wear Skirt at Gym

A lawsuit has been settled in favor of a 25 year-old Orthodox-Jewish woman from Crown Heights, who filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against a local fitness chain, claiming she was threatened with arrest and had her membership revoked because she used the gym’s facilities while dressed modestly.

From the New York Post:

She showed them who wears the pants.

An Orthodox Jewish woman who was barred from working out in a skirt in her local Lucille Roberts gyms in Brooklyn has won the right to keep on her traditionally religious garb.

The health-club chain said Tuesday that it will no longer turn away skirt-wearing gym-goers after being sued by school teacher Yosefa Jalal Wood-Isenberg in 2015.

Wood-Isenberg, who has since moved to Philly, claimed that Lucille Roberts’ employees at two gyms — one on Kings Highway and the other on Flatbush Avenue — harassed, screamed at and ultimately banned her because she wanted to exercise in a skirt.

She said that at one point, a manager said she was “‘trespassing’ because she was not wearing appropriate attire.”

As part of a settlement filed in Manhattan federal court, Lucille Roberts also agreed to reinstate Ms. Wood-Isenberg’s membership in the gym and to pay her an undisclosed amount.

Click here to continue reading at the New York Post.

9 Comments

  • Moishe pipek

    As they say in yidish “a gedulah mit borsht”.Good for her she made some money.As for kidush Hashem who says one should go to a gym where others do not wear tznius and irretate plain goyim?

  • Milhouse

    This is certainly a kidush haShem. When people reading today’s newspaper see that there is such a thing as tznius, and of Jews who insist on obeying Him despite difficulties put in their way, that alone is a kidush haShem. When gym employees throughout the LR network are informed that there is such a thing as tznius, and instructed to accommodate it, that is a kidush haShem. When LR management acknowledges that their rules must yield to His laws, that is a major kidush haShem. When other gym users who are less strong-willed, and would have compromised their observance in order to get along, hear that the gym has acknowledged its obligation to accommodate them, and they too decide to work out in skirts, that is a huge kidush haShem.

  • My Name is Sara

    The Lucille Roberts organization was founded by Lucille Roberts, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, who wanted to make available decently-priced exercise to all women.

    The way this played out is shameful and unnecessary. The judge obviously doesn’t understand the inyonim. The only men in the facility are trainers and instructors; tsnius doesn’t exist in the company of doctors and hospitals and the like.There is no reason to wear a skirt in the company of females, indeed it is even dangerous to wear a skirt while on the treadmill and other machines, to say nothing of other people getting caught on it and everyone falling down and at risk.

    Lucille at Kings HIghway is almost all Jewish women. Lucille in Bay Ridge is almost all Arab women; no men are there at all.

    This entire episode was unnecessary and now embarrassing. Doing more isn’t always better. So she won her lawsuit, so what? When she falls down and puts others at risk, what did she win?

    • Milhouse

      What judge? There was no judge involved in this.

      How much tznius is necessary there is up to her and her rov, not to the gym.

    • Pinhas

      It might not have been about tsniut.

      People forget, that pants of late for women, has been a question.

      I would like to say, I resent the authorities who allow it for sleep wear. Were they daft enough to think it would only be for that? I said no when my girls got pj pants, but lady wouldnt listen. Next thing well duh, the girls are wearing them at any hour of the day at home. I hold of the opinion that gals should wear dresses, always.

  • The kangeroo

    The true frum people go to the kosher gym in Brooklyn .Only Milhouse goes to goyishe gyms to glorify..

  • Dovid

    This is not a kiddush hashem.

    Forcing acceptance of Jewish tradition is old school, and breeds resentment.

    Lhavdil, today, the Muslim women are making tznius “cool” and a statement of individuality and freedom. At leftist protests, Jewish women are lining up to wear cool looking hijabs and skirts as a statement of feminine independence.

    We have been trying to do that for years, through teaching and example, and continue to have to go to court to shove it on people.

    Let’s figure out the secret. Women want to be tznius, as we can see. We have to figure out how to bring it to them.

    • Milhouse

      You’re talking nonsense. On the contrary, Moslems are forcing acceptance of their traditions everywhere. If a gym had forbidden a Moslem woman from wearing her hijab, do you imagine for a second that she would not have sued, and held a press conference with CAIR and the ACLU to force the gym to its knees?

      We are not “shoving” anything on people. We do not insist anyone else dress as we would like them to. All we demand is acceptance of our right to participate in normal life while observing our religion. And that demand is the very definition of kiddush haShem.