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would not be opening again
soon, she started looking for
another job and studying for
an advanced wine certification,
but she couldn’t focus.

“It just seemed kind of
stupid, with everything going
on,” she said. “It was the first
time in the last eight years that
I wasn’t, like, eating it up and
super excited about it.”
She lived alone in Old
City, and the days of isolation
blurred together. She started
practicing Judaism with more
intention, keeping kosher and
thinking about finding a career
that would make a difference
in people’s lives. Her grand-
mother, who founded the
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
(now JDRF), had always been
an inspiration to her. She
applied and was accepted to
master’s programs in counsel-
ling at Rosemont College and
La Salle University.

Lees is one of thousands of
professionals who have made
job switches or career changes
during the economic upheaval of
the past eight months. Whether
due to layoffs, furloughs or a
change in perspective brought
about by a national crisis, Jewish
professionals and organizations
are pivoting to adapt to a new
job market.

Jewish religious centers,
nonprofits and cultural organi-
zations have not been immune
from rounds of pandemic-in-
duced layoffs and furloughs.

Ilana Aisen, CEO of JPRO
Network, said organizations
that relied on earned revenue
have been the hardest hit.

“JCCs were under extraordi-
nary stress almost immediately.

So were synagogues, which rely
on membership dues around
High Holiday times,” she
explained. To help those coping with
job loss, the Jewish Federations
of North America partnered
with JPRO Network to
create Rise, a career services
program for professionals in
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM the American and Canadian
Jewish world.

“We just felt it critical, given
our mission and our mandate,
to support people who go
through the process of losing
a job, which is often practically
and emotionally shattering,
and to make sure that our
colleagues would land on their
feet,” Aisen said.

Rise connects furloughed
and out-of-work professionals
with career coaches, financial
information and mental health
resources to build resilience.

“For people who work in
the Jewish community, they’re
here because they’re passionate
about the mission, they love
the work,” she said. “For many
of us, it’s so deeply personal,
and people go through all the
stages of grieving because this
is a major loss.”
While the goal is to keep as
many professionals working in
the Jewish world as possible,
Rise also helps them find place-
ments in other areas with the
hope of keeping them in contact
with other Jewish professionals
until the economy improves.

JEVS Human Services has
partnered with Rise to offer
career counseling to clients who
worked in the Jewish world.

They have also been working
with clients from various
backgrounds and industries who
need to make a job or career
change during the pandemic.

Peggy Truitt, director of
career strategies, noted that
people with higher education
who have been able to work
from home have been less
drastically impacted by job loss
than those in the hospitality,
retail and restaurant indus-
tries. Many of those job losses
are becoming permanent as
businesses are forced to close,
and there is no way to know if
they will ever come back.

“We know that so many
restaurants have closed that
there will be a lot less opportu-
nity for those positions,” Truitt
said. Women
across the
economic spectrum are also
more vulnerable to job loss due
to the lack of available child
care from schools and day care
centers. “Taking on the whole home
front has been really impactful
to their careers,” she said.

Truitt said JEVS career
counselors work to help people
identify whether they need a job
change or want to change careers
entirely. If the latter is necessary,
they identify transferable skills,
study the competition in other
fields and assist with networking
and rebranding.

People who worked in restau-
rants, for example, typically
have excellent customer service
skills and sales skills. Truitt
said JEVS has helped these
clients transfer to e-commerce,
an industry that has boomed
during the pandemic.

JEVS client Kathy Blum
worked as a restaurant manager
in the Scranton area for over
30 years before she moved to
Northeast Philadelphia to be
closer to family. At 62, she
struggled to find another job
due to her age, and she had no
idea how to approach her job
search when the pandemic hit.

“I was really drowning,”
she said.

With the help of JEVS career
counselor Jackie Savoy, she
found a job working remotely
as a contact tracer
for Insight Global,
which contracts with
Pennsylvania’s state
government. She plans
to work there until the
pandemic ends and
then pivot into another
customer service role.

Interest in trades
like carpentry and
plumbing is
also booming among those
looking to pivot into
pandemic-proof fields.

Orleans Technical
College, the trade
Stephanie Lees
Photo by Steven Auerbach
school run by JEVS, has
seen a spike in enroll-
much wanting to change careers,
ment and wait lists.

“We all live in houses that because I could have stayed and
need repair and work in build- could have grown with the
ings that need maintenance,” company and continued in that
said Debbie Bello, director of path, but given a whole handful
of things made the decision to
admissions. Class size has decreased to leave,” she said. She quit her
accommodate social distancing job during Sukkot and is now
guidelines, but students are a full time graduate student at
still able to learn how to build Rosemont College.

Lees estimates her master’s
an entire two-story house on
in counselling will take two
the premises.

After dining restrictions years to complete. She hopes
were lifted, Lees got another to work with people who have
job working at White Dog Cafe experienced domestic violence
in University City, but helping and family trauma once she is
people find escapism in dining qualified. l
out during a national crisis no
spanzer@jewishexponent.com; longer felt meaningful.

“It showed me that I was very 215-832-0729
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JEWISH EXPONENT
NOVEMBER 19, 2020
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