In this economy, finding a job can be an exercise in faith. How houses of worship are turning into career centers.
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When Gail Landis lost her job as a business analyst for a financial-services company in New York City, she turned to her local synagogue. Rather than simply provide moral support and counseling, the 4,000-member temple, B'nai Jeshurun, offered résumé-writing workshops, seminars on how to market oneself, and an intensive boot camp for would-be entrepreneurs. "There's a Hebrew saying, 'If there's no bread, there's no Torah," says Guy E. Felixbrodt, the synagogue's community initiatives coordinator. Translation: if people are struggling to find work, there's no way they can focus on the other parts of their lives.
Landis knows this feeling well since losing her job in February. Since then, she has become an active member of the synagogue's social-networking group on LinkedIn, where its 500 members post job leads. She has attended three job-seeking seminars along with a networking event at the synagogue. Though she is still looking for a full-time job, she says she has found comfort in her temple's efforts. "The meetings weren't in a religious context. It wasn't like we did a Torah study," she says. "It was really about how to deal with the loss of a job and the things we could do to make ourselves feel better."
From Connecticut to California, churches, temples, and mosques are wading into the jobs crisis by helping their worshipers find work. With a national unemployment rate of 10%, job seekers need any lead they can get, even if it comes from a priest or a rabbi. While it may not have been in the institution's original mission to find its members paying gigs in addition to feeding the hungry or homeless, it's certainly where the need now lies. "Generally, pastors knew what people did for a living," says Rev. Peg Chemberlin, president of the National Council of Churches. "The new piece is that congregations are offering programs for their members who are struggling with their work lives."
Historically, religious denominations and institutions have played some role in people's careers. For years, some Christian churches have advocated for raising the minimum wage, and at this year's annual conference for the National Council of Churches, the keynote speaker advocated for a second stimulus package to create jobs, as well as the establishment a National Employment Accounting Office to track job creation. What has shifted has been the level to which churches, synagogues, and temples are becoming involved in the nitty-gritty of people's job searches. For some institutions, it's no longer enough to advocate for economic policies to lift people out of poverty, particularly if your members at home are struggling to find their next paycheck. "On a practical level, we want our members to be affluent," Felixbrodt says.
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