Unemployment and the Jewish Future

I submitted a letter to the editor of J-Weekly (San Francisco) in respond to this article written by an older Jewish professional complaining about the lack of kindness in the Jewish community towards unemployed Jewish professionals.

Needless to say, as an unemployed and inexperience Jewish professional (wanna-be), I was outraged.

After negotiating with the editor, I've got my piece down to 200 words (okay 202 to be exact). And here it is.

Sherri W. Morr’s op-ed piece, “For job seekers, the Jewish community lacks kindness,” fails to address the Jewish future and the need to recruit young people to work in Jewish communities to maintain our existence. Present Jewish leaders are already worried about how to engage young people with the community. They have set up engagement and volunteer programs for 20-somethings. But they are not hiring them as an additional incentive to be involved. I respect the fact that Morr is an experienced Jewish professional and communities are in financially trouble. I am without a job too but can work for less in exchange for experience. I have a master’s in Jewish Studies from the University of Michigan where I focused on American Jewish history and worked at its Hillel part-time as an administrative assistant. During my interviews, I gave hiring managers an opportunity to hire and train an empathetic young Jew who is actually interested in working in and caring about the community. What’s good without a future for the American Jewish community if leaders don’t start bringing in and training eager young people, the next generation of Jewish leaders, to advocate for the community in the United States and abroad?

Let's hope that this version gets published for this coming Friday's paper.