The Maryland Commission on Human Relations has ruled that a condominium board’s decision to prevent residents from using a rear door as a shortcut to an adjacent synagogue discriminates against a disabled resident.

The decision stems from a complaint filed by Sylvan Wolpert, a 90-year-old physically disabled resident of the Imperial Condominium complex in Northwest Baltimore who uses a walker to get around.

Wolpert and other Orthodox Jewish residents in the building had previously been able to use a rear fire door in the basement to get to the nearby Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation synagogue.

Pointing to safety concerns, the security committee of the board of directors decided to put an alarm on the door, forcing the mostly elderly residents to walk several blocks and up a hill rather than taking the 20-foot shortcut. Previously, the residents used a key to get in and out of the door.

The decision heightened racial and religious tension in the building, whose population includes Jewish and black residents.

Wolpert filed a complaint with the state human rights panel.

The complaint was originally denied but was amended upon appeal. The finding says the board of directors violated the commission’s fair-housing regulations by “failing to reasonably accommodate” Wolpert.

“It has therefore been determined that there is probable cause to believe that discrimination has occurred in this matter,” the finding says.

In a summary of the investigation, the regional property manager of the condominium complex told commission staff that when the door was accessible, residents sometimes propped it open with a rock, lent keys to nonresidents and allowed nonresidents using the synagogue to use it.

Wolpert contends that the board’s actions boil down to religious discrimination even though the finding was based on discrimination against the disabled.

“I know it is religious discrimination,” he said. “They’re excluding me as they’re excluding the other people, and they’re not excluding me because I’m handicapped.”

(Baltimore Sun)