Jerrold S. HELLER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. EBB AUTO CO., Dba Ron Tonkin Mitsubishi, Defendant-Appellee

Jerrold S. Heller appeals a district court judgment and a jury verdict in favor of EBB Auto Company in Heller’s action alleging that EBB unlawfully terminated him in violation of Title VII, its Oregon statutory counterpart, and Oregon common law. Because we find that EBB failed to initiate any effort to reasonably accommodate Heller’s religious practice of attending the ceremony in which his wife and children were converted to Judaism, we reverse.

I.

In late 1984, EBB Auto Company hired Jerrold S. Heller, who is Jewish, as a used-car salesperson. At that time, Heller’s wife, Katherine, was studying to convert from Ca tholicism to Judaism in anticipation of their oldest son’s bar mitzvah. Because Jewish law mandates that children take their mother’s religion, the bar mitzvah could not take place until Katherine’s conversion.

Katherine completed her course of study in early May 1985. On Saturday, May 10t EBB notified Heller that due to an upcoming “tent sale” all vacations and leaves were cancelled for the weekend of May 17-19. On Tuesday, May 14, Rabbi Yonah Geller telephoned Heller at work and told him that the conversion ceremony for Katherine and her study group could take…