To be young, Jewish and unemployed

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Feb. 20, 2009 / 26 Shevat 5769

At a small event in Washington Heights, 60 young Jewish accountants,

lawyers and computer programmers discovered a new paradigm: to be

young, religious and out-of-work.

The event, Parnasa Fest, held at the Mount Sinai Jewish Center,

promised little to attendees other than free food and a chance to

network. Some people came in bearing their resumes in stained leather

briefcases, but most were there to commiserate. While the event was

primarily for the younger crowd of unemployed observant Jews, there

was a handful of sad older men looking for work; men who had worked in

computers for 15 years before being laid off in the recession.

Everyone mulled around by the free corn chips and coke bottles. One

itinerant reporter ate all the sour bears.

An Orthodox Union representative spoke about the OU job board but

stressed that the OU was not hiring because of the economic situation.

Another recruiter for a financial services company said he was looking

for part-time employees, and later added that he himself was seeking a

full-time position. The scene was abysmal and neatly encapsulated the

current economic situation into a roughly two-hour period.

Parnasa Fest was founded by Dave Weinberg, Susanne Goldstone and Dani Klein to promote networking inside the Orthodox Jewish community, as well as lift spirits during what many consider to be a financial –– if not a mental –– depression. Speaking by phone, Weinberg, who works for an informational technology company, explained the sentiment among

young Jewish employees.

"Most of us in our 20s and 30s, we're still in the lower rank of most

companies," he said. "We're the latest people coming to the

organization and probably the first to be cut."

The "straw that broke the camel's back," in Weinberg's words, that

pushed them to form Parnasa Fest, was the recent layoffs at Yeshiva

University that, along with voluntary retirements and other

incentives, trimmed YU's staff by 120. Half of those are estimated to

be younger staff members. The last few months have seen a spate of

layoffs inside Jewish organizations and non-profits. Roughly a quarter

of Hadassah's national staff was laid off in February –– victims of

the Bernard Madoff scandal.

January also saw the highest rate of new unemployment claims in the

last 34 years, with 598,000 jobs lost, raising unemployment to 7.6

percent nationally. Of those losses, 120,000 came from the business

sector with lawyers and accountants getting laid off - traditional (if

not stereotypical) fields for promising young Jews (and their

mothers).

Parnasa Fest's next event will be on March 17 and they have already

announced a partnership with the Orthodox Union. Throughout the

evening, one recruiter for a digital marketing firm was in an almost

contagiously happy mood that had absolutely nothing to do with the

grim financial climate.

He was married the week before.

Some things, employment or not, go on.