Is being identified as an observant Jew helpful or unhelpful in securing employment? Well, I’ve had a lot of jobs, both before and after I was religious, and I’ve lost a lot of jobs, both before and after I was religious. So I’m either an expert, or you should stop reading this immediately and get back to work.
In case you’re still reading, let’s take a look at some examples from my checkered past working inside and outside Hollywood for an answer.
It’s 20 years ago and my writing partner and I are taking a meeting with one of the biggest producers in Hollywood – a man with a string of successes in movies, television, and music, with a stable of A-list stars. He’s put the word out that he wants to do a show about a Jewish family, and we’re there to pitch him a concept for it. It’s a little hard for us to do the look-‘em-in-the-eye-and-make-‘em-laugh routine that we’ve perfected, since he’s taking this particular meeting from the bathroom.
That’s correct. After the initial hand-shaking and some folks-we-have-in-common pleasantries, we’re a couple of minutes into our pitch and he stands up and walks away, saying over his shoulder, “Keep going, I’ll leave the door open.”
I didn’t want to be responsible for another cringe-worthy portrayal of Jews in the media.
Let me interject that I already had reservations about this project. I didn’t want to be responsible for another cringe-worthy portrayal of Jews in the media, when I knew that despite our best efforts studio and network executives, actors, and other evil people would add their distorted spins. But my partner prevailed with a good argument: how much worse it might be if someone who wasn’t religious wrote the script and threw in a lot of ignorant claptrap. Besides, there was a high probability a pilot would be shot and it could turbocharge our careers. I was sold.
So now we’re in a meeting with a man in a bathroom. My partner and I exchange a look – when you’ve worked together as long as we have, most communications are telepathic – and we keep on pitching, only louder. As we’re shouting setups and punchlines, we hear running water. We just shrug at each other and keep going.
(We’ve become jaded to weirdness. Once, we had a meeting with one of the creators of “The Simpsons,” at which the guy laid on his couch with an arm over his eyes, complaining of a migraine, that he wasn’t up to talking, and could we just tell him all about ourselves? So we talked for about 20 minutes, with not a sound or a movement from the guy no matter how animated or funny or moving or – eventually – desperate we got. After a particularly long and excruciating silence, it was clear he was asleep, and we tiptoed out. We didn’t get the job, but I now have his Emmy on my mantle.)
Back in the bathroom meeting, one of us throws out a funny line. We hear the producer laugh (a good sign) and the water stops. The producer yells, “I like it!” We give each other a tepid thumbs up, but we’re both thinking, What does he like, the concept or taking meetings from a bathroom?
He comes back into the room, wiping his hands, and says, “Boys, tell me something. Are you both Jewish?”
That’s an easy one. “Of course, we’re Jewish!”
“No, I mean really Jewish. This show has to be written from the inside out, it’s got to be real, it’s got to be a labor of love. Do you go to shul?”
My partner and I glance at each other from the corners of our eyes – can we possibly answer this question? You see, at that point in history, there were only four broadcast networks, competition was fierce, and the number one rule in Hollywood was, don’t say or do anything that can lose you a job. And since Jews (mostly) ruled Hollywood and those Jews were (mostly) securely secular, and being religious was anathema, you just didn’t go around blabbing your shul attendance. We always played it down – wore baseball hats to keep our heads covered, ate salads for lunch to keep kosher, and avoided casting sessions involving anything in a bikini.
On the other hand, the other number one rule in Hollywood was, get the job. Say anything, do anything – but get the job.
“Well, do you go to shul?”
We answer as one. “Of course!”
“How often? Everybody goes to shul on the High Holidays.”
Uhhh. “You know, every week. Pretty much. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. It’s a lunar calendar, so it’s hard to say.” He seemed to be satisfied, and we breathed an inward sigh of relief.
“How about tefillin?” Huh? “A real Jew puts on tefillin every day. Do you put on tefillin?”
Now, we’re in totally uncharted waters. Strange and murky waters, with sharks and an undertow: if we jump in, we may never come out.
But the man has the power to greenlight a script and a pilot and a series and a career.
“Sure,” we say. “Absolutely. Every day. Strap ‘em on, take ‘em off. We’re old hands.” He smiles, it’s the answer he was looking for. Everything’s good. But then –
“How about tzitzit? Do you wear tzitzit?”
“How about tzitzit? Do you wear tzitzit?”
Okay, this is too much. He knows about tzitzit, the ritual undergarment with fringes attached to its corners. I mean, everyone knows about the big stuff like keeping Shabbos or lighting candles or never putting mayonnaise on roast beef. But tzitzit? Who knows about tzizit except religious nuts like us? He’s clearly done his homework.
Again, it’s rule number one vs. rule number one. Risking the career we have vs. the career we want. Fear vs. greed.
“Sure we wear tzitzit! Yes we do. Every day.”
“Excellent!” Thank God, we had passed the test. Now we could go on to talk about –
“Let me see ‘em.”
“What?”
“Let’s see the tzitzit. If you wear ‘em, let’s see ‘em.”
Now, we really do look at each other in bafflement. Is this just a way to humiliate us, ruin us, drive us out of the business? Is it real-life truth or dare, except the truth and the dare are the same thing? He stares at us with a coy smile. My partner actually asks me, “What do you think?” I shake my head in uncertainty. Then we turn back to the producer and stand up.
Together, we pull out our tzitzit.
“Gentlemen,” he cries, “you’ve got the job!”
So, yes, there are times when being religious can help you get work.
Now, it is true that when the producers of “Frasier" decided not to hire us, we heard through the grapevine it was because we wouldn’t work Friday nights. But I’m pretty sure that was more about being unavailable for rewrite sessions than about anti-Semitic persecution. And panicking when the producers of “Cheers” asked me what I wanted for lunch at my very first Hollywood meeting didn’t stop them from offering us a spot on the staff. And the Orthodox thing certainly didn’t prevent NBC from asking us to write the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting special.
I kid you not.
But what about a regular job, outside of Tinsel Town?
Well, I was once up for a job writing communications for the CEO of one of the biggest asset management companies in the world. Every step of the interviewing process was a lovefest till they told me one of the requirements was to be on call 24/7. I told them I could do 24/6. They told me I could do 24/6 elsewhere.
When I was offered a job at another big financial firm, I told my prospective boss that I couldn’t work Friday nights and Saturdays. She said, “Hey, we’re not doing brain surgery here. The hours are normal.” Well, turns out “normal” to her was 85 hours a week. But none of those 85 hours was on Saturday, so we had a deal. Then came the Jewish holidays, which always seemed to fall at the busiest possible time. After yet another extended absence, my boss remarked that with all that extra time off, maybe she should convert. I told her it was a great idea, as long as she was willing to give up half the foods she liked, go for days at a time without electronics, and get thrown out of her host country every 100 years. “Never mind.” she said. Smooth sailing ever since.
Once you’re identified as a religious Jew, everything you do reflects on all other observant Jews, the Torah, God, the whole shebang.
In fact, my Wall Street employers have been consistently agnostic on my observance, it just hasn’t been an issue. And the abundance of Orthodox Jews throughout the workforce in a variety of interesting, productive, sometimes powerful positions seems to indicate that this is relatively universal (unless you’re applying to be, say, the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Grand Marshall of the hajj to Mecca).
No, the real challenge is what happens after you get the job. Once you’re identified as a religious Jew, you’re on display, and you’d be better be on your best behavior. Everything you do reflects on everyone else, all the other observant Jews, the Torah, God, the whole shebang. When my partner and I worked on “Cosby,” a newspaper reported that the show taped on Thursdays instead of Fridays because two Orthodox producers were on the staff. Of course, the real reason is the star liked three-day weekends. But Bill used to refer to my partner and me as “real Jews” and once told my father I was a mensch. He’s got his troubles now, of course, but it was nice to make a nice impression.
So I try to keep this all in mind at work. And I don’t take any meetings in the bathroom.
(15) Arthur, May 23, 2017 5:57 PM
Job Tips
One can make themselves a much more attractive job candidate by studying the early lives of world leaders, past and present, such as William Gladstone.
(14) DAS1951, January 31, 2015 6:05 PM
Not so simple
I don't think it is quite as simple as all that. In real life outside Hollywood and, maybe, America (and Israel, of course), Shabbat and festival observance can be a real issue and one the jobs of the Board of Deputies of British Jews is to support people whose jobs are under threat for those reasons. In winter it is especially acute.
(13) H.E.Brown, January 19, 2015 4:37 PM
getting a job
Depends on the person doing the hiring. What their mindset is. Some don't care some do.
(12) Anonymous, January 18, 2015 2:35 AM
Funny for you; unemployed for me
I'm still looking for a job 9 months after being fired, allegedly for "not being a team player". I refused to come in to do extra work on Sabbath, when I had already completed all of my regular work. The supervisor snarled at me and said, "You get your high holidays!" (In other words, isn't that enough?) Good luck trying to prove this.
Anonymous, February 2, 2015 6:05 PM
To #12 anonymous
I was sorry to read that you had been fired. Re: Doing extra work for one's boss. In the future, would it be possible for you to work in an environment where you could do the extra work on a Sunday? Sometimes we have to get creative in order to ultimately get what we want/deserve. I wish you all the best!
(11) Alan Oirich, January 15, 2015 5:20 PM
Nice article. After the tzitzis, I was worried he'd ask you to kasher a piece liver.
(10) Michele, January 15, 2015 12:31 AM
TV show about a Jewish family?
I loved this story . . . so funny. But what happened with the TV show about a Jewish family?
Eric Brand, January 15, 2015 4:05 PM
Never aired
The show never saw the light of day, unfortunately. (Or fortunately, depending on how cynical you want to be about the media's portrayal of religious Jews). The odds against a show making it through the development phase to the screen are very slim -- especially so back in the day, when there were fewer outlets and cable was just a melange of prizefights and basement shows with guys like Wayne and Garth. But success when it comes is great, and Jewish tradition urges us to learn from our failures and keep trying ("Though the righteous fall seven times, they get up again." - Proverbs). So I have no regrets -- except maybe for that time I stopped dead a great conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis by asking if she'd ever worked in TV, spacing out she was actually starring in a hit show at the time. Problem was I didn't have a TV at home, so how was I supposed to know? (Don't answer that.)
(9) Todd, January 15, 2015 12:09 AM
So....
What was the TV show?
(8) Allan Leicht, January 14, 2015 3:50 AM
Another Excellent Brand, which...
...should be required reading for young Jews looking at the job market: Eric is a role model, it's not Shabbos that's the issue, it's our value to the employer - and our values vis a vis our Employer. Thanks, Eric.
(7) Nancy, January 13, 2015 11:24 PM
Roast beef & mayonnaise?
I enjoyed your article, but what's wrong with putting mayonnaise on roast beef?
(6) Marc Braunstein, January 13, 2015 11:24 PM
shomer shabbos Residency
A commitment to Jewish values can not only help get you a job, but will bring much success in life. In medical training, residencies that are "shomer shabbos" are few and hard to come by, but are "halachically preferred", to say the least. I heard a story from R' Avraham Avraham MD, who said that he encountered a single girl who was in a predicament: she could either go to a shomer shabbos residency but in a city with a lower chance to meet her baschert or to a non-shomer shabbos residency in a city where there were more shidduch options. Rabbi Dr. Avraham encouraged her to honor the shabbos, and not work on the Day of Rest in residency, though it would mean a very significant sacrifice. The girl in her heart of hearts felt that he was correct and heeded the advice. Ultimately, by keeping the Shabbos she was rewarded: she met the right person and married him soon after she began her training.
(5) Anonymous, January 13, 2015 10:00 PM
I, too, am having issues with being observant
I don't live in a large Orthodox Jewish Community (in fact, I feel it is dying). However, when I started going on interviews and said that I do not work late on Fri thu Sat. I was turned down from jobs. I have had people ask me...if I were a Muslim, could I have off every Fri...and I said Yes! I thought that we live in the US where we have a right to religious freedom??? I have been denied positions or passed over because I am not available 24/7...I am hopeful that when I move, I will have better luck in a town with more observant Jews.
(4) David, January 13, 2015 7:21 PM
Well....
If you're looking for a job as a rabbi, it's probably a distinct advantage...
(3) Dorothy Harding, January 13, 2015 6:03 PM
What a wonderful nation to be part of
As a gentile Christian who loves the Jewish people and their land, this was a refreshing, honest and humorous article! A real privilege to be entered into the mind of what it must cost the observant Jew to courageously share the price he sometimes has to pay in the service of his God to keep the commandments and the religious culture of which he is a part. May you continue to kept safe and well alongside all those in your Jewish family, in particular with the work you are doing through Aish.com. Shalom
(2) orthodox actress, January 13, 2015 4:04 AM
How about helping your fellow Shabbat observers?
Any suggestions for those of us in front of the camera? I have found that even for extra work, availability on Shabbat can be expected (and of course, I turn it down). I have extensive training, a good resume, and union membership. And last year, I earned very little....
Eric Brand, January 14, 2015 4:53 AM
You probably won't want to hear this...
There are enough challenges on the writing/producing side -- I don't know how any observant Jew can start a career on the other side of the camera, where you're unlikely to be able to choose your material, who you're acting and interacting with, and when you work. Almost all the shomer Shabbat actors -- such as Mayim Bialik -- had established careers before they became religious. I do know some who work on small, independent productions, but I don't think they're making a living. Maybe another career that makes use of your acting talents, with fewer tests and steadier work? Hey, if God had wanted religious Jews to be actors, would he have put Hollywood 3,000 miles away from a decent New York bagel?
orthodox actress, January 15, 2015 1:42 AM
Los Angeles is far from NY bagels but
Broadway has many kosher restaurants!
I believe Hashem gave me my talent for a reason. Money is not an issue for me. I do wish the Orthodox world would be more interested in supporting appropriate material AND hiring observant performers.
(1) Nancy, January 12, 2015 6:37 PM
This article was just what I needed to read today!
Have you been eavesdropping on any of my conversations? :-) As someone who is climbing the ladder of observance, I often feel like people are watching what I do.