The Modern Yid

If you're orthodox like me, I can guarantee, you've already pulled out your handy dandy Jewish calendar to the months of September/October and made the grim calculation of how many vacation days you will have left once the holiday season passes. By now you've likely also drafted that awkward email to your boss outlining the [...]

Sometimes being an Orthodox Jew in the workplace goes beyond the awkwardness of keeping kosher, early Fridays, and an endless array of religious holidays. Sometimes, it comes with the tension of saying the word Israel. Yeah, I'd say it can be pretty contentious. Especially when it gets news coverage (i.e. always). Whenever I say I'm [...]

So, I work for the government. As you can imagine, it's a huge organization. But it's kind of a very small world. Like any workplace who you know is, well, everything. So by the time I finished my Masters, like any new grad, I was already ingrained with the whole “network, network, network” thing. People [...]

Beygeling (or Bageling) definition: Inserting a Jewish phrase or concept into a conversation in order to determine whether the other person is or isn't Jewish. Or to let them know that you're part of the tribe. A couple of weeks ago my good friend was chatting at work with a group of colleagues about the best [...]

I'm lucky to be surrounded by some pretty amazing colleagues. They are also very curious (in a good way!). Here are the top ten most commonly asked questions and my attempted responses. Number one undoubtedly goes to: #1 What makes something kosher? The varying levels of responses may include: The basics: We don't mix meat and [...]

With Shavuot/Pentecost on the horizon let’s talk Jewish holidays in the workplace. Case in point: That awkward time I started my job the week of Rosh Hashanah and the conversation with my boss went something like this: "Do you recall when you made the offer that I mentioned I had a few religious holidays coming [...]

I think I can sum up the introduction to my comical and challenging experiences of navigating Orthodox Judaism in the workplace to: The first day of my first job outside the Jewish bubble. That day also happened to be the last for somebody else. And, like many farewell office parties that would follow since, someone brought [...]