Is Zara Anti-Semitic? A Former Employee Thinks So.

By Anne Cohen June 3, 2015

Remember Zara’s . According to a former employee, that was no coincidence.

Ian Jack Miller, the fashion giant’s ex-general counsel for the U.S. and Canada, has filed a $40 million lawsuit against the retailer detailing a history of racism and intolerance, and claiming that he was fired for being Jewish, gay and American.

The McGill and Baruch College graduate was fired in March after complaining about “homophobic emails and anti-Semitic remarks,” sent to him by his supervisors, The New York Post reported.

Zara founder Amancio Ortega (who happens to be the second richest man in the world) apparently favors people who are “straight, Spanish and Christian,” according to court papers. In other words, people exactly like him.

Miller, who spent time on an Israeli kibbutz as a teen and keeps kosher, said that colleagues didn’t know he was Jewish and were “shock[ed]” when they found out. The Post adds that prior to the lawsuit, Ortega and others “would openly deride Jewish landlords and Jewish real estate developers,” while complaining about “los judios,” and “those people.”

So really, how badly do you want those Zeline-style summer culottes?

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

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