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By Jonathan A. Greenblatt
Applying for a job is hard.
Whether you’re already employed or not, whether it’s your first job out of school or you’ve been in the workforce for decades, it takes time, it takes energy, and it takes courage.
Candidates will pore over their resumés, practice for interviews, ask trusted friends and mentors how to put their best self forward.
Discrimination against Jewish job applicants:
But it turns out the name atop that resumé sadly can still, in the 21st century, be a liability for Jews.
That’s the finding of a new landmark study from the Anti-Defamation League on discrimination in the job market against Jewish and Israeli Americans.
For this study, ADL asked a leading labor economist to conduct a field experiment submitting applications in response to administrative-assistant job postings using resumés that were identical except for specific characteristics, such as the applicant’s name.
The researcher sent out 3,000 applications this year for jobs in 23 cities.
Group applied for jobs using Jewish names, prior employers — what they found was troubling.
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By using names that suggested applicants were Jewish American, Israeli American or American with Western European backgrounds, the researcher was able to determine that individuals with Jewish- or Israeli-sounding names like “Rebecca Cohen” and “Lia Avraham” would need to send many more applications than someone with a less ethnic sounding name such as “Kristen Miller” in order to receive a positive response.
How many more?
The survey showed that the fictional Rebecca would need to send 24% more applications, and fictional Lia 39% more, to receive the same number of positive first responses from a prospective employer.
Overall, the positive response rate was 3.4% lower for resumés with Jewish-American-sounding names and 4.9% lower for Israeli-Americans compared to those suggesting other backgrounds, such as Italian or Irish.
These are not just numbers.
This is groundbreaking evidence of serious antisemitic discrimination in the job market.
And let’s not fool ourselves.
The findings of this study aren’t an aberration — they come amid a climate of unaddressed antisemitism in our country and of the vile antisemitic and anti-Zionist campaigns we’ve witnessed since Oct. 7, 2023.
The hateful rhetoric we’ve been confronted with for more than a year has real-world consequences, and we need to face it as a country and as a people.
We already knew that some Jewish people were changing their names on their doors, on delivery or navigation apps and elsewhere.
We knew that some people had started removing their kippahs or Stars of David in certain places to avoid harassment.
We also learned through our latest Online Hate and Harassment Survey that 41% of Jewish people changed their online behavior in the past year to avoid being recognized as Jewish.
None of this is acceptable.
I’ve been thinking a lot about all the Rebecca Cohens, Lia Avrahams and other Jewish people I know and how many of them may have wondered why, despite their qualifications and motivation, they were never called back for a position they dreamed of and thought they were qualified for.
On top of antisemitic incidents reaching record numbers and growing antisemitic beliefs, this study illustrates the very real need for employers, legislators and civil-rights officers to take anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli prejudice more seriously to ensure a workplace that works for everyone.
Federal labor law prohibits discrimination against a person in hiring decisions based upon their race, religion or national origin, and this should not be a high standard to uphold.
I’ve been thinking about those who did think about it because they had a hunch, or those who may have used a maiden name or another name for that reason.
But here’s the thing: While you can wordsmith a work experience on a resumé or an introduction email, you can’t easily wordsmith your name.
During the Jewish immigration boom in the early 20th century, Jewish immigrants sometimes would choose American-sounding names at Ellis Island to make their path to full integration easier.
One would have hoped that in today’s more tolerant world, hiding your religion or identity was a thing of the past.
This survey now gives us pause.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt is CEO and National Director of ADL(the Anti-Defamation League). This op-ed originally appeared in the New York Post.