New Jersey Teen Sues Pizza Shop Sued for Horrifying Antisemitic Work Conditions

UPDATE: The owners of Maurizio's Restaurant and Pizzeria on Hope Road have issued an apology for the alleged anti-Semitic rant of its former manager, Francesco Scotto Di Rinaldi.; the owners also fired Di Rinaldi. 

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A New Jersey teenage pizza delivery driver says his manager went on an antisemitic tirade, including joking about burning Jews, when he asked for the night off on a Jewish holiday, according to a lawsuit.

Nicholas Bogan, 17, started working part-time at Eatontown Joint Maurizio’s Pizzeria & Italian Ristorante Sept. 20 and little over a week later asked for the first night of Rosh Hashanah off prompting his manager, Francesco Scotto Di Rinaldi, to send a series of offensive messages, a Monmouth County lawsuit alleges.

In a message chain including Bogan, Di Rinaldi, and two delivery drivers, Bogan said on Sept. 28, “I’m celebrating the Jewish holiday tomorrow night,” according to a screen shot of the messages included in the court papers.

“F–k the Jewish,” Di Rinaldi replied, according to the lawsuit filed in late November. “Put them on fire (fire emoji)/Like hitler was trying to do/He had a point.”

Then the high school senior tried to “defuse the tense situation and avoid antagonizing Defendant Di Rinaldi,” by responding with three crying laughing emojis, the court papers say.

But Di Rinaldi allegedly “doubled down,” the suit says, when he responded, “Yeah I’m serious can’t stand them/With the Indians as well/Why would you celebrate some [sic] that you don’t belong/You wrong [sic] born in america so you don’t belong to them.”

Bogan — of Eatontown — never went back to work at the pizza place because he was “deeply shaken and did not feel safe returning,” the court papers say.

His lawyer, Armen McOmber, said despite the fact that Bogan didn’t go return and didn’t offer an explanation, no one at the pizzeria ever called to see what happened or to apologize.

Bogan — who filed the suit with his parents — told The Post “I thought [Di Rinaldi] was kidding and after he told me he was serious it actually hurt me.”

“I was shocked and upset at the same time,” the teen said.

Bogan said when he told his parents, “We knew pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to go back there because I didn’t want to work under someone who was going to make a comment like that.”

“Bogan suffered additional mental anguish and severe stress due to the fact that Defendant Di Rinaldi’s comments were made at a time when anti-Semitic violence has been undergoing a worrisome resurgence throughout the world,” the court documents say.

“People nowadays are really violent. Him saying something like this to me, I don’t know what he is capable of doing,” Bogan said. “I felt threatened by the comments.”

“This guy that [Bogan] barely knew, who was a manager and who was an adult, felt the freedom to openly say something like that,” McOmber said.

“He was so entitled to have these completely anti-Semitic views, that he felt he could share with strangers and he felt it was okay. That’s what’s so appalling and disturbing,” the lawyer added.

“To be so open and free with it and to reference the Holocaust,” McOmber said. “Who would do that?”

Swastika Drawn on Alzheimer Patient's Head and Back at Elderly Care Facility

When Shane Morrow went to visit his uncle Larry at Glendale Care Centre in Toronto's Swansea neighbourhood this week, he noticed something strange on his head. Shane said he and his mother initially thought his uncle had some sort of accident and that the black marks they were seeing were stitches. However, upon closer look, he realized they were very wrong.

Someone had drawn a swastika and a happy face on his uncle's head in black marker.

"I couldn’t believe my eyes," Shane said. He went on to question the staff member on duty who allegedly told him that this was one of two swastikas that were drawn on the 65-year-old's body by "a younger man." She then attempted to scrape off the swastika with her fingernail, Shane said. 

He said he was told that his uncle initially had a swastika drawn on his back, which was able to be washed off, but the one on his head was not.

Shane said he then began to worry as to how a person could draw on his uncle's body like that.

"I was thinking: How did he get his shirt off? Why was his shirt off? Did this guy pull his shirt over his head and was abusing him?" Shane said, adding that he also noticed bruising on his uncle's arms. 

Shane said he was told by the staff member that the perpetrator of the incident had been arrested and the situation is under control, however Toronto police media relations officer Const. Caroline de Kloet said there was no report filed for the address in question. 

Larry, who is living with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes, has been a resident at Glendale (located at 46 The Queensway) for approximately two years and is on a waitlist to get into a retirement home. Shane said that aside from the alleged abuse, he also noticed his uncle was clad in dirty clothes and living in an unclean environment at the facility. 

"The smell of feces, the smell of urine, I could not believe it," he said. "It was to the point that I wanted to grab my uncle, throw him on my back and get out of there. That’s how bad it was."

Swastikas Founds in the Heavily Jewish Area of NYC’s Upper West Side

Someone drew small swastikas on the doors of several apartments in a building at 46 West 83rd Street shortly before the New Year, according to police.

This kind of thing happens four or five times a year in the precinct, and is not indicative of a spike in hateful graffiti, wrote Deputy Inspector Timothy Malin, commanding officer of the precinct, in an email to West Side Rag. But it comes at a time when anti-Semitic incidents have spiked in the city and surrounding area, with violent attacks occurring in Monsey, Jersey City, Brooklyn and elsewhere.

On Dec. 30 around 11 a.m., police were called to the building, where officers observed the swastikas. They measured about one inch by one inch, and were on several doors in the building. The incident was referred to the city’s Hate Crimes Task Force.

This is the first anti-Semitic incident reported in the precinct in about three months, Malin notes.

Given the other recent anti-Semitic attacks, Jewish leaders organized a march and rally on Sunday to stand in solidarity against hate. The marchers will gather at 11 a.m. at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan and proceed across the Brooklyn Bridge, followed by a rally in Columbus Park (near Cadman Plaza).