The High Holidays: Jewish Identity and Belonging at Work
If you celebrate Christmas, would you feel included at work if your colleagues scheduled important events or meetings on that day?
Now imagine that this didn't just happen once or twice but regularly. In fact, every year someone would try to schedule something on Christmas and you had to politely remind them that this holiday is kind of a big deal to you and, no, you won't be available. After you say this, no one ever reschedules the events so that you can be included.
Welcome to my world.
Almost every year since I moved to the Midwest, people schedule an event, meeting, or other activity on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur--the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar for many Jews. Once when I was a part of the Division of Inclusion, Diversity & Equity at my university, a team meeting was scheduled on Yom Kippur. More recently, I just had to decline a speaking opportunity in April because the event will be held on Passover.
For me, the cumulative impact of these experiences is to make me feel isolated, excluded, and devalued. Of course, this is equally true for many Muslims, Hindus, and other religious minorities who have similar experiences of marginalization in their workplaces.
✡ In light of the global increase of antisemitism, please support your Jewish coworkers and neighbors who observe the High Holidays. The Jewish new year begins with Rosh Hashanah, which is October 3-4. Yom Kippur is Saturday October 12.
Six action steps you can take today:
1. Build a belonging culture by NOT scheduling important, community-wide events on the High Holidays!
2. Offer reasonable accommodations for religious observance of the High Holidays. Remember, all Jewish holidays start at sundown.
3. Use an updated interfaith/world religious calendar since many holidays are not on the same day every year (unlike Christmas). For example, the Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist calendars are all lunisolar.
4. Invite individuals of all religions to share their own needs. Jewish people observe the holidays in different ways. For example, Rosh Hashanah is two days but many people (including me) observe only one day.
5. Schools and colleges should allow students to be absent to observe religious holidays without penalty.
6. Instructors should give students additional time to make up work or exams.
How can I help? Let's partner to empower your team or organization to support Jewish colleagues and mitigate anti-Jewish bias. Shana tova to all who celebrate. May it be a sweet new year. 🍎🍯
#JewishCommunity #dei #antisemitism #inclusion
