Lawmakers want NIH investigation

Three congressmen called on the National Institutes of Health to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism and religious discrimination. NIH removed the Rev. Ray Fitzgerald as director of its chaplain’s office after he fired Roman Catholic, Jewish and Greek Orthodox clerics and used anti-Semitic epithets to describe the Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Reeve Brenner. Fitzgerald remains as a chaplain, however. “We urge you to take a leadership role in conducting a full investigation into this matter,” Reps. Steven Rothman (D-N.J.), Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) wrote Friday to Elias Zerhouni, the NIH director. “Pending the results of such an investigation, we call on you take the appropriate actions, and if necessary punitive measures against Rev. Fitzgerald, to ensure that religious tolerance is promoted and protected at NIH.”