Key findings from a survey of Jewish professionals across industries.
Key points
- One-third of Jewish employees feel unsafe being openly Jewish at work, especially in tech and nonprofits.
- Jewish ERG membership surged 700% since Oct. 7, with many new members joining due to rising antisemitism.
- Only 58% of Jewish professionals trust their employer to properly handle antisemitic incidents.
Source: Resume Genius/Pexels
This post is co-authored by Rabbi Elan Babchuck and Rebecca Leeman. Rabbi Elan Babchuck is the executive vice president of Clal—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, as well as the Founding Director of Glean Network. He is a co-author of Picking Up the Pieces: Leadership After Empire (Fortress Press, 2024), and a partner of the Builders Movement. Rebecca Leeman is the Chief of Staff at Clal, where she leads the Jewish at Work initiative. She has a corporate background in people analytics and organizational culture.
According to the American Jewish Committee (AJC), a civil rights and Jewish advocacy group, nearly two-thirds of American Jews feel less secure in the U.S. than they did a year ago. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports an average of nearly 34 antisemitic incidents occurring per day in the U.S. since Oct. 7, 2023.
The survey also shows that nearly 6 in 10 American Jews have changed their behavior over the last year due to fears of antisemitism. Forty percent of respondents reported that they’ve avoided publicly wearing or displaying items that might identify them as Jewish. Like many other identity groups, Jewish people are diverse in myriad ways. They hold a wide range of identities and political views, but they are likely to experience several interconnected forms of discrimination, such as sexism, racism, and ableism, all at the same time. Given all this, it’s possible your Jewish employees are feeling ever more isolated in this moment.
In response to these challenges, Clal—the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (where two of us, Elan and Rebecca, work)—conducted new research that surveyed over 1,300 Jewish professionals in the U.S. across a range of industries to learn how they felt about work, and what they wanted their workplaces to provide for them.
Here are three key findings that we hope offer some useful insights for organizational leaders:
- Safety concerns persist. One-third of Jewish employees feel unsafe being openly Jewish at work, and more than half of respondents (56%) don’t feel supported by their employer to express their Jewish identity. This issue is particularly pronounced in the tech and nonprofit sectors, where employees report higher rates of discomfort and stereotypes, and are significantly more likely to consider leaving their jobs as a result. Additionally, only 58% of respondents said they trust their employer to handle incidents of antisemitism.
- Demand for Jewish ERGs is growing. Nearly half of the ERG members from the survey sample joined after October 7, 2023, demonstrating the increasing importance of these groups in fostering connection and resilience. 17% of respondents listed the rise in antisemitism and concerns about safety among their reasons for joining. On the other end of the spectrum, 73% felt a desire to celebrate being Jewish, while half of respondents noted that networking was a core driver of their decision to join a Jewish group. Particularly of note, 44% of Jewish ERG participants are not otherwise engaged in Jewish organizations outside of work, meaning that they now rely on an ERG as their sole venue for celebrating Jewish life in community, with 24% of participants saying that their company’s ERG is their “primary place to connect with Jewish life.” JewishErgs—a grassroots organizing network for Jewish ERG leaders and an important catalyst in the broader movement of supporting Jews in the workplace—has seen its membership grow by more than 700% (from 44 to 312 members), since Oct. 7, 2023.
- Jewish employees are looking for more support from their companies: Strikingly, only 61% of participants felt that their companies were supporting their Jewish ERG efforts. This lack of support was even more pronounced among ERG leaders in the health care and tech industries, where only 17% in health care and 41% in tech felt supported. A significant majority of ERG leaders (69%) indicated that backing from senior management is crucial for sustaining participation in Jewish networks. Focus group feedback highlighted that companies are often unsupportive of Jewish ERGs as an ethno-religious minority group, and are challenged that Jewish ERGs do not fit neatly into a clearly delineated category. Many noted that Jewish ERGs are therefore inadequately supported, compared to other ERGs at their company, particularly as it pertains to a lack of funding.
To counteract these challenges, several senior company leaders that we interviewed shared suggestions for supporting their junior colleagues in efforts to launch an ERG. They ranged from serving as a senior sponsor of the group, to assisting junior colleagues in navigating HR compliance, to writing a formal letter of support, to attending an ERG event. These actions—from the small ones to the more political-capital-intensive ones—made all the difference as the ERG leaders worked to establish and sustain their groups.
So, what can leaders do?
One approach is to prioritize the creation of peer networks for your Jewish employees through the launch of Jewish ERGs or affinity groups. If your organization doesn’t have ERGs, gather up-to-date resources and background on how they work to make the case. These groups can give your Jewish employees a built-in community at work, which in turn increases their feelings of security and engagement, and the likelihood those employees will stay with your firm for the long haul.
Other steps reflect leadership best practices for any marginalized group: Take the time to listen to your employees and check in with them regularly. Make sure they have ways to safely share concerns with managers or company senior leaders. Let employees know about available resources for self-care and mental health support, including wellness-related time off. You can also ensure policies are clear around time-off accommodations for religious holidays. Provide budget for community-based gatherings, if possible.
Many Jewish employees say they are exhausted by having to constantly explain Judaism and/or their relationship to Israel. If your company offers other identity-based cultural training, include Jewish identity and antisemitism awareness training. Don’t wait for Jewish employees to ask—proactively provide these resources. Not only will you help the entire company by bringing in critical insights into Jewish identity and culture, but you’ll also model engaged allyship, which is in short order these days.
Antisemitism training enables Jewish employees to feel better understood in the workplace, but when it is offered without proper context, it can perpetuate the message that Jewish identity is largely defined by persecution. As one Jewish ERG leader shared in the CLAL study, “Cultural awareness training is the joy—the good things about being Jewish. I’d love to see more on what it means to be Jewish in a way that’s not just about the challenges.”
Your Jewish employees deserve to feel safe, secure, valued, and included—just like any other professional in the workplace. Thoughtful engagement today can lead to a stronger, more inclusive, and more productive workplace tomorrow.
References
American Jewish Committee. (2024). AJC report: Majority of American Jews changing behavior due to fear of antisemitism. Retrieved from https://www.ajc.org/news/ajc-report-majority-of-american-jews-changing-behavior-due-to-fear-of-antisemitism
Anti-Defamation League. (2024). US antisemitic incidents skyrocketed 360% in aftermath of attack on Israel. Retrieved from https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/us-antisemitic-incidents-skyrocketed-360-aftermath-attack-israel-according
Babchuck, E., & Leeman, R. (2024). What your Jewish employees need right now: Key findings from a survey of Jewish professionals across industries. Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.
