Israel’s late General Moshe Dayan, a”h, was once quoted as having said that Jews should be farmers. His observation can be tied to two periods in Jewish history. First, as we know from reading the Torah, in Biblical times the great majority of Jews indeed tilled the soil, with a minority being either Torah scholars or artisans. A similar distribution of occupations characterized the resettling of Israel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although most farming was done collectively on kibbutzim or moshavim rather than by individual families. Also, another occupational category was added, namely writers and artists.
With the growing exclusion of Jews from university admissions and professional programs in our time, coupled with increasing violence aimed at forcing out the ones already there, it appears to be time to re-examine the question of Jews, work, and Torah learning. To illustrate the current situation, the ADL recently conducted a study in which labor economist and college professor Bryan Tomlin was commissioned to submit for jobs around the country resumés in triplicate, which were identical except for the applicant’s name, which was chosen to be Jewish-sounding, Israeli-sounding, or Western European-sounding, respectively.
Tomlin found that he had to submit 24% more applications as a Jewish American than as an American with a Western European name, while for Israeli Americans the figure was even higher – 39% – to get an interview. One can only imagine how much greater the bias may become in the future as hiring authorities are increasingly drawn from Gen Z, many of whom have been indoctrinated since elementary school to hate Israelis and Jews.
At one extreme, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Talmudic era sage and author of the mystical Zohar, held that Jews should occupy themselves exclusively with Torah learning and let Hashem provide for our needs. He was disabused of this notion, which really applies more to the Messianic era, when he and his son emerged from twelve years of hiding from the Romans and his eyes were able to set on fire whatever work he gazed at, whereupon G-d ordered them to return to the cave for another year. When they reemerged, Rabbi Shimon saw an elderly Jew running on Friday afternoon to prepare for Shabbos and was mollified.
Rabbi Shimon’s original position was by no means a majority opinion. By comparison, Rabban Gamliel, son of Rabbi Judah HaNasi, said: “Torah study is good together with an occupation, for the exertion of them both makes sin forgotten. All Torah study that is not joined with work will cease in the end, and leads to sin” (Pirkei Avos 2:2).
Now, the question is what kind of work and how much of one’s time should be devoted to it. The Midrash Says on the Book of Leviticus quotes the Rambam as writing, “If a Jew who is learned in Torah addresses others in a gentle and friendly manner, receives them with a happy countenance, does not offend them even if they insult him, honors even those who make light of him, acts honestly in his dealings, does not sit long at the parties and gatherings of those ignorant in Torah but is constantly seen occupied with the Torah while wearing a tallis (with tzitzis) and tefillin, and if he moreover acts towards his fellow men beyond the strict requirements of law, then this Jew sanctifies the Divine Name.” This statement is remarkable because it advises being constantly occupied with Torah, thereby implying full-time study, yet Maimonides himself was a physician to the King of Egypt, though his voluminous writings on Judaism show that his profession was of secondary importance in his life.
To strengthen the point, Rabbi Moshe Weissman, compiler and commentator for The Midrash Says, adds in a footnote, “Rambam’s portrayal does not coincide with the popular notion that the ultimate kiddush Hashem is achieved by an Orthodox Jewish scientist or by a Jew holding university degrees who is also a mitzvah observer. Of course, a Torah Jew who moves in a gentile or non-observant environment [including myself] bears a responsibility with regard to sanctifying Hashem’s Name. Yet, he does not represent the ideal Jew.”
For the centuries in which Jews in the Diaspora were generally forbidden to own land and restricted to a few occupations, most prominently money-lending, the above considerations were just an academic exercise. Then came the 18th– and 19th-century Enlightenment, which opened many professions to Jews in Western Europe and North America. The ongoing conflict between livelihood and Torah learning appears to be waning, however, as admissions of Jews to major universities in America have fallen from as much as 20-25% to 5-8%, with further decline being tied to the DEI catechism (if it continues), which holds that the proportion of every identity group in every form of livelihood must precisely match its proportion in the general population or else constitute prima facie evidence of racism, as Jews are about 2.4% of Americans. So where do the displaced 15-20% go?
Interestingly, this is not an issue by and large for Orthodox Jews, who have traditionally mostly eschewed higher education in favor of skilled trades that require much less secular study, thus allowing more time and mental concentration for Torah. I know Orthodox men who are electricians, plumbers, appliance repairmen, and locksmiths, as well as realtors, even a male nurse, who make a decent living, are unencumbered by student loan debt, and have time to pursue Torah study. In our present turbulent time of rapidly rising antisemitism on college campuses, it’s comforting to know that Jew-hatred has had difficulty gaining a significant foothold in community colleges (at least outside of New York and California) and trade schools, where students are focused more on preparing to earn a living than on political or social issues.
Trade workers historically have been able to start their own businesses. Unfortunately, such opportunities for self-employment are shrinking with the increasingly aggressive efforts by large corporations to eliminate small business competitors. Exhibit A: A 2020 California ballot initiative allowing Uber and Lyft to treat their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees – after a 2019 law mandated the opposite – was fought in court cases for years until the California Supreme Court decided last year in favor of Uber and Lyft. The companies maintained that treating drivers as employees would raise costs. Some of us suspect that the underlying motive of those fighting the law was to destroy the gig economy that allows people to work for themselves, rather than being captives of large employers. Franchisees such as those in the fast-food industry are also targets. Again, California passed a law mandating a $20 per hour minimum wage for fast food employees (which is precisely what I make as a part-time community college tutor with a doctoral degree), except that a chain that contributed significantly to Governor Newsom’s campaign received an exemption to remain at $16 an hour.
For those who still want to pursue a college degree, Tikvah CEO and Mosaic publisher Eric Cohen gave a speech at his organization on May 13 that proposed four possible avenues:
- Be a Jewish dissident: Fight the prevailing campus culture by organizing counter-rallies, writing letters to outside publications and to university administrators, testifying before Congress, even engaging in lawfare in cooperation with organizations such as the Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Deborah Project. As Mr. Cohen notes, however, parents are unlikely to want to pay $90,000 annual tuition to have their children live in the “underground,” nor will withholding contributions to colleges have much leverage when those institutions have other sources of revenue, such as the federal government as well as multi-billion-dollar endowments.
- Self-segregation: For many Orthodox, attending Jewish universities such as Yeshiva University and Touro would appear to be the obvious solution.
- Going to Israel for college, with or without making aliyah: Major Israeli universities are already making an effort to recruit American Jews with English-language programs taking only three years and at a lower tuition cost.
- Finally, Cohen’s preference: Working to revitalize American education by transferring to more welcoming colleges, mainly in the Sun Belt and other conservative areas, even to new institutions such as the University of Austin. Remarkably, there are even Christian colleges offering refuge for Jewish students experiencing antisemitism. In fact, Yeshiva University has been quietly building coalitions, including with Catholic colleges. We should note that the AMCHA initiative has launched an anti-Zionist faculty barometer (https://amchainitiative.org/azf-barometer) that rates 730 colleges on a scale of 0 (negligible) to 5 (extreme). I urge Jewish students to stay away from schools rated 4 (severe) or 5, and to exercise caution about colleges rated 3 (moderate). While this is a heartening development, there remains a question about finding employment after graduation, as shown by the ADL study cited at the beginning of this article.
Whatever approach the younger generation of Jews takes regarding education vs. employment, we clearly need to rethink our relationship with the larger society. It makes no sense to partner with former allies who have turned against us. The basic rule that applies is when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging. Our first step should be to eliminate the infatuation with socialism that our great-grandparents brought with them from Russia beginning in the 1880s.
While I will refrain from recommending specific political or social policies, let me offer a word to the wise. During World War II, the federal government forbade radio broadcasters to talk about the weather, for fear that somehow our enemies might overhear and use the information to stage bombing raids, however remote the possibility might have been. One day, former Cardinals’ star pitcher Dizzy Dean was broadcasting a game when a rain delay was called. Dizzy figured out how to explain the situation by saying something like “I’m not allowed to tell you why the game was stopped, but if you stick your head out the window, you’ll find out.” It’s incumbent on us American Jews to stick our heads out the window, figuratively speaking, and reassess where we are.
