| The Only Jew in the Office |
Page 1 of 2  My late grandma, Mary, was a truly wonderful person but, as you might expect, she had some views that clearly belonged to a different generation. One of these was that I’d be happier working for a Jewish firm than a non-Jewish one, ideally for the South African Board of Deputies circa 1945 (we both lived in London when this was discussed, so she was drawing on her own experience). For most of us living in the UK, it’s a case of getting a job in any office that’ll advance our career. In some professions chances are there’ll be a high Jew count wherever you work – such as law, the media, bespoke mezuzah design. However lots of people have similar situations to me, where they are the only Jew in the company.
I work on a mobile phone magazine and spend every day in an open plan office with around ten others. I’m sure they all know I’m Jewish, but only because I seem to have developed an bizarre urge to mention it all the time. I never talk about rabbis, synagogues or the Torah because they aren’t part of my non-working life. It’s more to do with Jewish internet dating and Jewish Young Professionals Friday night dinners, which feature significantly in my social life. For some reason whenever I talk about the dinners, I make out that they are solely run as a way for people to bag Jewish husbands and wives – which isn’t really doing these events justice. I say this because I enjoy making a joke about the dinners, but thinking about it now, I’m the sole representative of Jewish culture in my office, so I should be more responsible here.
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