opinion
BY ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
I hadn’t heard of “quiet quitting” until
about 10 minutes ago. Since then
every major news outlet has done a story
on this purported trend, defined as a
movement among office workers to draw
firmer work-life boundaries by doing less
work. It means closing your laptop at 5 p.m.

when your cubicle-mate is staying late
to finish a project. It means turning off
notifications on your phone so you can’t
check your work emails after hours. It
can mean doing the bare minimum and
still hanging onto your job.

On a grander scale, it means cooling
your hottest ambitions in favor of a saner
work-life balance.

Of course, to a certain kind of devotee
of the attention economy, this sounds
like nothing less than slacking off. “Quiet
quitting isn’t just about quitting on a job,
it’s a step toward quitting on life,” huffed Arianna
Huffington in a LinkedIn post. The Fox News host
Tomi Lahren said it’s just a euphemism for being
“LAZY” (she added an expletive).

I don’t have a dog in this fight, since I am not a
“quiet quitter.” (I am more a “person without any
hobbies or little kids, who if he closes his laptop at
5 p.m. doesn’t know what to do with himself.”) But I
understand the impulse. Technology and corporate
culture conspire to blur the lines between work and
office. The demise of unions has shifted the work-
place power balance to employers. For those who
could work at home, the pandemic obliterated the
boundaries between on and off hours.

“Quitting” is a terrible way to describe what is
really doing your job, no more and no less. It only
feels like “quitting” to a culture that demands that
you sacrifice private time to your employer or
career. This peculiarly American “ethic” shows up,
for instance, in vacations: Americans get on aver-
age 10 fewer vacation days a year than Europeans
because, unlike the European Union, the United
States does not federally mandate paid vacation
or holidays.

Just reading a New York Times article about
how eight of the 10 largest private U.S. employ-
ers are using tracking software to monitor their
employees made me feel guilty and anxious —
even though I was reading the article as part of
my job.

16 SEPTEMBER 1, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
If quiet quitting were actually slacking, it would
run afoul of Jewish law.

“Jewish employees are obligated to work at
full capacity during their work hours and not to
‘steal time’ from their employers,” writes Rabbi Jill
Jacobs in a responsa — legal opinion — called
“Work, Workers and the Jewish Owner,” written
for the Conservative movement in 2008. And
yet this warning aside, Jewish law is much more
concerned with employers who take advantage of
employees rather than the other way around.

Jacobs — now the executive director of T’ruah,
the rabbinic human rights group — describes
nine principles of workplace justice in the Torah,
and nearly all are addressed to the employer.

These include treating workers with “dignity and
respect” and paying them a living wage and on
time. “The ideal worker-employer relationship should
be one of trusted partnership,” she writes, “in
which each party looks out for the well-being of
the other, and in which the two parties consider
themselves to be working together for the perfec-
tion of the divine world.”
This is not exactly what we now know as the
“Protestant work ethic.” The rabbis of the Talmud
did not tie hard work and economic success to
divine salvation. No doubt, they understand that
people need to and should work for a living. “In
traditional sources, work is often regarded as nec-
essary, and certainly better than idleness
(which can lead to sin),” according to a help-
ful article from My Jewish Learning.

And yet, because the study of Torah
is considered the ideal use of one’s time
(assuming you are a man, anyway) the
rabbis were clearly wary of occupations
and ambitions that demanded too much
of a worker. In Pirkei Avot, the collection
of ethical sayings from the Mishnah, Rabbi
Meir says, “Minimize business and engage
in Torah.” The rabbis, My Jewish Learning
explains, “were clearly worried that exces-
sive pursuit of material well-being would
distract from higher pursuits.”
The artist Jenny Odell’s 2019 manifesto
about quitting the “attention economy,”
“How to Do Nothing,” similarly rejects “a
frame of reference in which value is deter-
mined by productivity, the strength of one’s
career, and individual entrepreneurship.”
Easier said than done, however. Her anti-
dote — to “stand apart,” to embrace “soli-
tude, observation, and simple conviviality”
— is perhaps more feasible if you are an artist
rather than an office-worker, let alone a factory
worker, home health aide or Amazon warehouse
runner. (She spends a lot of time birdwatching and
retreating to mountain cabins.)
To her credit, Odell quotes Samuel Gompers,
the Jewish-British immigrant and labor leader who
championed the eight-hour workday as far back
as 1886. In an address asking “What Does Labor
Want?”, Gompers answered by quoting Psalms: “It
wants the earth and the fullness thereof.”
What most people want, I suspect, is simply
more control over their time and mind-space, and
to keep work from leaking into their private lives
— and maybe vice-versa. They want to do work
that matters, and the private time to decompress,
reconnect and take care of stuff.

It’s telling that there is no commandment in
Torah to work, but there are plenty to rest.

Shabbat is a literal day of rest, but it is also a mind-
set. It strictly defines profane productivity, in order
to carve out space and time for the sacred. This
Jewish attitude toward work and rest is not about
quitting, but it is about occasional quiet. JE
Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor-in-chief of the New
York Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency. He previously served as
JTA’s editor in chief and as editor-in-chief and CEO
of the New Jersey Jewish News.

PHOTO BY HEIDE BENSER/GETTY IMAGES
‘Quiet Quitting,’ the Sudden Trend
in Work, Sounds Sort of … Jewish?
(Hear Me Out.)



nation / world
Billionaires Give $1M Apiece to Pro-Israel PACS
Pro-Israel PACs reported millions of dollars in donations in August, including
from billionaire donors with long track records of giving to Israel-related causes,
JTA reported.

Kraft Group LLC, the company owned by New England Patriots owner Robert
Kraft , gave $1 million to the United Democracy Project, the new super PAC affi l-
iated with AIPAC, the powerhouse Israel lobby.

George Soros’ Democracy PAC donated the same amount to the J Street Action
Fund, the PAC affi liated with the liberal pro-Israel lobby.

Kraft , a prolifi c donor to Jewish causes who gave $1 million to Donald Trump
in 2017, is the sixth person to break seven fi gures in giving to AIPAC’s super
PAC, joining WhatsApp founder Jan Koum and fi ve others to donate at that
level. United Democracy Project spent over $26 million in Democratic primaries this
cycle, making it the largest spender and one of the most active super PACs in the
entire country. Its preferred candidates prevailed in seven of the nine congressio-
nal races where it spent money.

Meanwhile, Soros’ donation was the single largest to J Street Action Fund,
which has spent $1.7 million this cycle, including $100,000 to Rep. Jamaal
Bowman, a progressive who staved off a challenger in his New York district.

Italian Company That Produces Hitler Wines Says it Will
Stop Next Year
Th e heir to an Italian winery that has long produced an Adolf Hitler varietal says
he will be putting a cork in its “historical” series of wines next year, JTA reported.

“Th at’s enough. We’re sick and tired of all this controversy,” Andrea Lunardelli,
who expects to take over Vini Lunardelli in early 2023, told an Italian newspaper.

“So from next year, the whole historical line with labels of people like Hitler and
Mussolini will disappear.”
If Lunardelli goes through with his promise, it would bring to an end a
three-decade line of Nazi-themed business for his family’s company — and to
waves of criticism, including from Jewish groups, that have accompanied it.

Vini Lunardelli in northeastern Italy fi rst introduced the series featuring dic-
tators and fascist fi gures such as Francisco Franco and Josef Stalin in 1995. Th e
company’s site boasts more than 37 diff erent labels, featuring dozens of Nazi-
glorying slogans.

Th e wines have long generated outrage as well as offi cial censure. In 1997, the
German government lodged several complaints, and 10 years later Italian police
seized bottles from the business.

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PCR Tests Reinstated at Ben-Gurion Airport
Ben-Gurion International Airport reinstated a service on Aug. 24 that most trav-
elers probably didn’t miss: PCR testing for people entering Israel, jns.org reported,
citing Israel Hayom.

Th e tests are being funded by the government and are voluntary, at least for
now. Th e purpose of the program is to make PCR testing easily accessible for
people entering the country ahead of winter when COVID-19 numbers are pro-
jected to spike.

In the fi rst phase of the new rollout, testing will be carried out from 8 a.m. to
10 p.m. Later, testing will be available around the clock. Travelers who want to be
tested can avail themselves of the service in the “G zone” of the arrival hall aft er
collecting their baggage.

About Half of the Ukrainian Refugees in Israel Have Left
Of 29,000 Ukrainian refugees who sought refuge in Israel, 14,000 have left for
other countries, Haaretz reported, citing Social Services Ministry data.

Meantime, another 4,200 have qualifi ed for citizenship under the nation’s Law
of Return.

Nearly 13,000 Ukrainians have registered for humanitarian assistance, which
might include medical care, education system placement and aid for buying
food. JE
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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