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Hasid Fired From NYPD For Not Cutting Beard

An Orthodox Jew was denied graduation from the police academy for not trimming his beard.

Former recruit Fishel Litzman of Monsey told the New York Daily News that he was fired on Friday after multiple confrontations with the department over the length of his whiskers.

The 28-year-old, who is Hasidic, believes that cutting his beard is forbidden by God.

‘As an Orthodox Chasidic Jew it is absolutely forbidden in my religious beliefs to cut or trim my beard in any way,’ he said in a March 18 memo to the NYPD after he was disciplined.

But NYPD rules usually require officers to be clean-shaven. The department makes exceptions for beards kept for religious purposes, but even then only allows 1 millimeter worth of growth.

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One Comment

  1. Mike B From: NJ

    July 24, 2012 at 10:45 am

    I would think this policy would have been made known to him way before he even joined the academy.
    Having said that there should be another exception for Orthodox Chasidic officers.