Fair, Not Special

To the Editor:

In regard to the Jan. 12 letter alleging "special treatment" for a Hasidic Jewish Police Officer who is given Saturdays off for religious observance, as a proud member of the FDNY for 31 years, I worked every Christmas and Easter for my Christian brethren.

I did this through the mutual exchange of tours. If only Jewish members worked on Christmas and Sundays, with all Christians getting off, the Fire and Police departments could not operate, because there are too few Jews in those departments.

As per the Hasidic police officer, this is one officer in a force of 36,000. This does not have an effect on their manning. If the Hasidic officer takes those days off any time that it was his scheduled day to work, he is charged for it against any accumulated leave.

Jewish law stipulates that on Friday night and Saturdays, observant Jews do not do any type of work. 99.5-percent of the Jews in the P.D. and F.D. do not follow the Jewish law in regard to the Sabbath.

You have to consider that when Jesus was a carpenter, he did not work on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

STEPHEN L. KLEIN

Editor's note: Mr. Klein retired from the FDNY as a Tour Supervising Fire Alarm Dispatcher.