Tag: Oakland County Circuit Court

A Jewish children’s author and public school teacher has filed a lawsuit accusing Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit and Lake Orion Community Schools of violating her civil rights and misusing taxpayer dollars by forcing her to teach religion under a state-funded program intended for secular instruction.

The case, brought by Lisa Rose in Oakland County Circuit Court, centers on Michigan’s “shared-time” services program, which allows public school districts to provide non-essential, secular classes — such as art, music, and library science — at private schools. Under the arrangement, Lake Orion hired Rose to teach library classes at Hillel, a Jewish day school in Farmington Hills.

But according to the lawsuit, Hillel treated her not as a public school employee but as a private religious teacher, requiring her to include Jewish faith into her lessons and banning materials that did not fit its religious philosophy.

“Hillel was using public, government funding for the purposes of teaching only a specific religious curriculum in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” the lawsuit, filed by Rose’s attorney Annisa Hudy, states.

The suit adds, “Hillel had a duty, but yet failed, to inform [Rose] that she would not be required to introduce religious activities or religious materials during her teaching at Hillel.”

Michigan legislation makes clear that shared-time services cannot be used to impose religious oversight.

“Shared time instruction clearly is not intended to benefit one or all religions,” state lawmakers wrote in legislation about the services. “The purpose is secular: to provide educational opportunities at public schools for all resident school-age children whether they attend public or religious or secular nonpublic schools.”

According to the “Core Values” listed on its website, Hillel’s mission is to teach Judaic values and promote Zionism.

“We believe in the importance of Israel, Zionism and the Hebrew language,” the school states. “The modern State of Israel is a place where Jewish values come to life, and a home for Jews from around the world. We see spiritual meaning in the existence of the state, and are proud of its continued growth.”

The school adds that the goal for its graduates is to “develop a deep connection to, and the ability to advocate for, the State of Israel in all its complexity.”

Rose, an award-winning author of Jewish children’s books, began working at the school in October 2022. A month later, Rose says her troubles began when she invited another author to present The Christmas Mitzvah, an award-winning book that blends Jewish and Christian traditions to highlight kindness across faiths. Tablet Magazine selected The Christmas Mitzvah as one of the best Jewish children’s books of 2021.

“Al Rosen was a Jewish man who loved Christmas,” the book reads. “It wasn’t his holiday … [b]ut what could be bad about peace on earth and goodwill to humanity?”

But Hillel administrators canceled the visit, saying the blending of “mitzvah” and “Christmas” was inappropriate.

“My gut is also left unsettled by the title of the book,” Amira Soleimani, Hillel’s director of Judaic studies, wrote in an email to Rose on Nov. 22, 2022. “I think I would feel differently if it was called A Holiday Of Giving or Helping Others. Something about the juxtaposition of mitzvot and Christmas makes me uncomfortable for our community.”

That decision, Rose argues, shows one of the ways Hillel imposed religious oversight on a state-funded position meant to remain secular. Her direct supervisor for the library program was Soleimani, not Lake Orion officials, as required by the shared-time agreement, according to the filings.

The arrangement violated the separation of church and state, she and her attorney argue.

“I found out that everything I was told about my job was not true,” Rose tells Metro Times. “Lake Orion should have been supervising me, not the director of Judaic studies.”

When Rose suspected that both Hillel and Lake Orion were violating the shared-time agreement, her partner Alex Duensing filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the pact and discovered that the Jewish school was forbidden from using Rose to teach religion and that Lake Orion was supposed to be monitoring her work.

In fact, she says, Lake Orion Community Schools never supervised her or checked in on her job.

In an email to the school on March 6, Duensing warned Hillel that Rose “has NEVER been informed, in any way, that she would be required to disallow any and all religious content and materials from her library, including promoting Zionism, which is listed as a religious value of the school in the Employee Handbook (which Lisa never received) and in your school’s online materials.”

He added, “Furthermore, I would like to notify you that according to the shared services agreement and rental agreements — the celebration of Purim, a holiday of festivity and merrimaking, mandated in the Bible by the Book of Esther — is absolutely disallowed in the spaces rented by LOCS. Furthermore, Hillel may not use personnel from the shared services team for any purpose in promoting this holiday.”

Three days later, Hillel terminated Rose. The school cited her classroom management, but she says the firing was clearly retaliation for blowing the whistle and refusing to violate the U.S. Constitution.

Lake Orion later placed Rose on administrative leave and laid her off a month later.

Her lawsuit accuses Hillel of religious discrimination, retaliation, fraudulent misrepresentation, defamation, and emotional distress, and claims Lake Orion breached its duty to oversee the program and protect her rights as a public school teacher, the suit alleges. She is seeking damages and a ruling to vacate a prior arbitration award that dismissed her claims.

At the heart of the case is whether Michigan’s shared-time system, which funnels millions in taxpayer dollars each year to private and parochial schools, adequately guards against religious teachings.

Rose argues it does not.

“She was treated as an at-will religious employee when, in fact, she was a public school teacher paid with government funds,” her lawsuit states.

The case could test the limits of church-state separation in Michigan’s schools, particularly if evidence shows public funds were used for religious teaching.

Meanwhile, Rose says she feels “ex-communicated” from the Jewish community because of backlash over the lawsuit.

“They trashed my reputation,” Rose says of Hillel. “We had to withdraw from our temple. It’s very hard.”

Still, Rose believes she did the right thing.

“I could be silent, but I truly believe in separation of church and state,” she says. “It has made me question my faith. Do I really want to be a part of this? To me, I feel like I’m being the good Jew because I’m speaking out about something not being right. I’m saying this is not OK.”

Hillel, which did not respond to questions from Metro Times, sued Duensing in December 2023, claiming he was masquerading as a licensed attorney and trespassed on school property when he came to support her during a hearing. Duensing says he did neither.

Rose suspects the school is trying to intimidate her and her partner.

“This has been life-changing, and I didn’t want any of this,” Rose says. “I was very prepared to work this out peacefully.”

Lake Orion Community Schools did respond to requests for comment.