‘Let us pray” often opens funerals and weddings, but budget meetings? When you work at a Catholic college, you come to expect getting blessed without sneezing and praying before committee meetings.
The first time I heard prayer at work was at a staff meeting at the Catholic college library where I had just been hired.
“Dear God, we thank you for bringing us together at this moment. We thank you for bringing Nancy, our new librarian, to us and pray for all good things for her and the library. Amen.”
We thank God for Nancy? I was both honored and appalled. Though I appreciated the gracious welcome, I found it unnerving to be the subject of a benediction at work. Like many secular Jews, my religion is a private affair and I am apprehensive when subjected to public prayer. Will it conclude with “in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ?” If it does, will I — should I — keep from flinching?
When I applied for this job, I deliberately kept my Judaism under wraps, not knowing if it would prevent me from being hired or make me a target for Catholic conversion. Once hired, I deliberately left blank the line on the personnel form asking my religion.
But now that I was sitting in a staff meeting being prayed over, I realized that in this environment, religion and work would be intermingled. During the next few weeks, I heard many more prayers and experienced a workplace completely different from the public and not-for-profit worlds in which I had worked before.
Daily Mass was scheduled at lunchtime and was short enough to enable employees to pray and eat before returning to work. Mass also accompanied commencement and major campus events, though participation in communion was optional. Words such as “mission” and “caring” were heard as often as “student retention” and “enrollment projections.” Since many members of the faculty, administrators and staff were priests and nuns, “God bless you” and “Peace” concluded many a conversation.
Though I had not begun blessing anyone, I was often mistaken for a nun. I chuckled to myself every time I was addressed as “Sister Nancy.”
I continued to keep my Judaism a secret until the approach of the Jewish holidays, when I “came out” as a Jew to my boss by submitting a vacation request for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“I didn’t know you were Jewish. That’s great,” he said, greeting the news with celebration rather than religious coercion. Handing me back the request, he told me to simply take off on those days. “At this college, attendance at religious worship is encouraged, not penalized,” he said.
I was immediately appointed to the Jewish/Christian Relations Committee, which I did not know existed. That body — which I ended up chairing — sponsored campus-wide inter-religious dialogues and an interfaith Passover Seder, and sent Hanukkah cards to the Jewish students and staff on campus (who I also did not know existed). As I later learned, the desire to identify the Jewish employees who should receive these cards was one of the reasons the religion question appeared on the personnel form.
Of all the religion-related activities of the college, it was praying before meetings that I came to appreciate most. All prayers were kept religiously generic. Even though it was a Catholic college, none of them ever excluded non-Christians by evoking the name of Jesus Christ.
The subject matter of the prayers varied, but was always inclusive. For instance, blessings of healing were offered for someone’s recovery from surgery or in celebration of the birth of a new baby. Sometimes the prayers were work related — asking for wisdom to rearrange the department’s schedule, or divine beneficence for an increased budget. Other times they were related to news items, such as prayers for newly elected political candidates or for victims of a hurricane.
For seven years I flourished in the combined work/religion atmosphere of the Catholic college; however, when a more attractive position at the local community college library was offered to me, I succumbed and changed jobs.
I now work for a public institution, so I am no longer allowed undocked time for the Jewish holidays. I miss that benefit, but more than that, I yearn to pray before meetings. Before battling over the budget or squabbling over office supplies, it would be nice to have a moment of reflection. With surveys showing less than half of all employees being satisfied with their work, gatherings of employees these days most likely include a sizable number of disgruntled workers. A benediction before a meeting provides a chance to put aside complaints, collectively take a deep breath and unite on a higher plane. Though workers may still be unhappy, group reflection helps temper anger and frustration, if only for a moment.
If public prayers were allowed at work, given the current economic situation, most employees would probably offer prayers of thanksgiving for still having a job. Privately, I would add a plea that should I lose my position, I be allowed to return to my previous job. Sister Nancy would gladly return to the Catholic college, bringing with her blessings of happiness and peace.
Nancy Kalikow Maxwell is a freelance writer and library director at Miami Dade College North Campus. She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
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I am not at all surprised that Ms. Maxwell's fears proved unfounded.
The contemporary Catholic Church and many of its institutions are quite philo-Semitic. My experiences in planned giving committees for Catholic institutions have found that they are very accommodating to Jewish needs. For example, if an event is being considered for a Jewish holiday, when I mention the date issue, it has invariably been changed.
The title is puzzling. The author failed to explain why she was lonely. If you want an article about a truly lonely Jew, solicit one from a member of our armed forces. It's not uncommon to be the sole Jewish member of a company or squadron and forego personal contact during long deployments to remote places for weeks or months.
As the only Jew on campus at university, a guy I know was trying to explain to his friends what it meant to be Jewish. A friend concluded with, "But you're still a good Christian, right?"
What a sad commentary on the state of Jewish identification in America. 1- That a Jew in the U.S. in the 21st Century feels the need to hide who they are screams about their own Jewish ambivalence and gives lie to the notion of true religious freedom. All America has done has given the Jew freedom to throw off his Yiddishkeit in authentic ways and the freedom to hide it. 2- That it took a Catholic institution to inspire a Jew to pray in public, to pray in a group, and to offer blessings and give thanks bespeaks the tragedy of Jewish American Hellenism.
3- And so much more can be said.
What a sad commentary on the state of Jewish thinking in some quarters. I just returned from Tel Aviv where I encountered many Jews with no ambivalence about their Yiddishkeit: they've abandoned it completely. Rabbi (?) Geller's quick conclusion that assimilation is a Jewish American phenomenon is unfounded and a terrible read of the article.
I love Jewish culture though I am not one. Yet as a Christian, I would like to remind you all that we "Christians" worship a Jewish Shepard...
Is it surprising that Catholics are christian in their charity?
Many people now say their catholic, and realy are not...it like saying are you from the north of Ireland or the south. The south being catholic. I knew a man once and he knew scripture like the back of his hand, and also stated Jesus, was a man, that was Jewish, not a god. I said to him, " your a catholic, can you still be a catholic. His answer..."I was born a catholic and I will die a catholic. This realy bothered me for a long time. But Jewish people are the same, people hang on to customs rituals and feast days, becouse of family memorys....the garthering of our love ones. This is were the lie and deceite of the error is found and rooted.
You can write the truth on the wall and they will not see it...
But many do not know the truth...or will ever hear it or see it....and this brings my heart in tears. To see them worship in vain and pray in vain.....it hurts me, and allways did. Many would embrace G-D if they knew the truth. Many could be lead to G-D and many could ask you to lead them....up that clime to the mountain of our G-D. But like Rabbi Moshe Pesach we do not have the push the drive.....the desire in our hearts and minds...read Ps. 51
Ps. 51 look for the inward parts and the hidden part. Then read Jer. 31 and look again for the inward parts. Here you will see two diffrent people, then think which group are you in. Jer. 32 Behold, I am the LORD, the G-D of All Flesh, is there any thing too hard for Me? tell him NO! and pray....talk abput your G-D parise Him...He is worthy of our praise.
forgive me, Rabbi Moshe Pesach, I missed a word I thought it put did not type it in sorry...But like Rabbi Moshe Pesach said , we do not have the push the drive...that is what you meant right? We need to let the light of the grace and mercy that G-D gives us in our lives to be seen more....It is written....The Lord will gather in all the lost sheep..... Rabbis today have a greater job than ever in any of our generations....we still are walking in error...G-D has not turned...let it be this generation, that wipes the tears that other generations with their sins have given G-D. Let us go deep into the desire of G-D and please serve him in all we do and say. Let us praise him from our hearts...like David. It is written Amos 9 the tabanacle of David G-D will rise up again. That was a tent, we can be that tent with the law written on our inward parts, keeping day and night the flame of G-D'S desire lit and not letting sin take it out.
1. How many Catholics work at Jewish institutions at the same upper levels as Jews work at in Catholic institutions? 2. 56% of Jewish Americans would favor war with Iran. Out of 1.75 million Americans in the US military, estimated 8,000 are Jewish. However, most American Jews know a Jewish family with a member in the IDF.(Forward) Think about it.
Long ago (early 60's) I was interviewing for a position teaching English in the night school of a Jesuit college in Califoria.
When the priest I was meeting with asked me, "And what is your Christian background?" I said it was minimal and limited to my literary studies since I was Jewish.
"Wonderful!" he responded. When I asked why, he said he was tired of dealing with "wishy-washy Protestants," that it was a faith commitment they cared about and obviously I had that.
I got the job and enjoyed my time there.