“…how much people hate you guys”
Thankfully I have been working from home for a small company where one of the co-founders is Jewish and a zionist, so my work since October 7 has not changed or become unbearable like it has for so many others. I am grateful for that, but many of my past experiences with antisemitism at work has me terrified to look for a better paying job that could put me in a less safe space.
At one job, my Irish boss told me that because our company was British, which was a christian nation, he didn't need to give me Jewish holidays off and that I shouldn't take Yom Kippur off because he needed me on phones. At another job, my boss made a comment about how Hannukah is "some kind of celebration of oil and all it provides for people in the middle east." That same boss had no idea why I was offended at antisemitism shown by an African American and an Asian American coworker. I had recently gotten married so they asked me what I would name a child if I had one, and when I mentioned naming traditions I would stick to, they asked me why I wouldn't name my son "Christian" since it would "help to smooth over how much people hate you guys."
The worst was this guy at my last job before my current work-from-home job. At first he became a good friend and started asking me to help him understand the Jewish position when it comes to Israel. I had my husband, who actually got a degree in politics with a specialization in middle eastern conflicts, sit with him and explain the entire history, both the good and the bad. We worked well together for almost two years until things started to fall apart. At first it was just eye rolls when I would mention anything Jewish. He started to get upset that my numbers, and commissions, were significantly better than his and started making comments about money-grubbing Jews. Eventually, I asked our boss if some new HR rules meant I was required to take a vacation day for Yom Kippur or if I could keep doing what we had originally agreed, where I wouldn't need to take a day off if it was just one work day off for a religious holiday but that I would make myself available to clients as needed on Christian holidays. I didn't quite hear what he said when I brought it up, but my boss did and it was bad enough that within an hour she fired him. My other coworkers stopped speaking to me at that point. If the covid lockdown had not closed that company, I would have been lonely for a long time, and could have been in a really bad position this year. With all the terrible experiences I had before, how could I consider leaving such a safe company right now, even if they do pay me terribly low wages?