Here we are on the eve of Shabbat, the eve of the Days of Awe, and the eve of Labor Day.  Calendar coincidences like this give us the opportunity to contemplate familiar subjects from new vantage points.

The opening verses of this Shabbat's double parashah establishes the eternity of the connection between our people and the covenant forged at Sinai and reaffirmed at Moav:
"You are standing before God in order to enter into the Covenant of God and take the oath that God makes with you, so that God may fulfill God's promise to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is not with you alone, but with those who are here and those who are not here that God makes this Covenant and oath."
No matter where we Jews have lived, no matter when, we have with determination and commitment and creativity kept this Covenant with our God. 

On the eve of this weekend, which is meant to honor laborers who built and continue to build this country, who have maintained and continue to maintain our infrastructure and homes and workplaces . . . indeed honoring all those who have and do work and seek work . . .  and in this season of reflection and this Sabbath that affirms our connection to our covenant and our history as slave laborers, the findings of the Tannenbaum Institute's  survey of the American workplace is most relevant:  "What American Workers Really Think About Religion: Tanenbaum's 2013 Survey of American Workers and Religion."

In the introduction to the survey, the Tanenbaum staff writes:

If there is one conclusion to take away from Tanenbaum’s 2013 Survey of American Workers and Religion, it is that religion is relevant in the workplace. Not only is it a problem when a person feels unfairly treated on the basis of his or her beliefs – whether religious or non-religious – but tensions around religion are occurring, and are increasingly likely to occur, in our ever more diverse global workplaces. That said, it is important to recognize that the issues raised in this survey are complex and nuanced.

One-third of respondents have seen incidents of religious bias in their workplaces or have personally experienced them.

• 4-in-10 employees at companies without clear processes for handling employee complaints are looking for a new job, compared to 2-in-10 employees at companies with these processes. 
  
• Half of non-Christians say that their employers are ignoring their religious needs. 
  
• More than half of American workers believe that there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims. 
  
• Nearly 6-in-10 atheists believe that people look down on their beliefs, as do nearly one-third of white evangelical Protestants and non-Christian religious workers. 
  

More than one-third (36%) of workers say they have personally experienced or witnessed some form of religious non-accommodation4 in their workplace.

• The most commonly experienced or witnessed forms of religious non-accommodation are being required to work on Sabbath observances or a religious holiday (24%) and attending company-sponsored events that did not include kosher, halal, or vegetarian options (13%). 
• Nearly half of non-Christian workers (49%) report experiencing or witnessing religious non-accommodation at work. 
• White evangelical workers (48%) are equally as likely as non-Christian workers to report experiencing or witnessing religious non-accommodation at work.
  
• Two-in-five (40%) atheists also report experiencing or witnessing religious non-accommodation at work.
  
  

 It is also clear that when employers adopt an accommodation mindset and implement policies addressing religious diversity of all kinds, their employees experience higher job satisfaction than workers whose employers do not:

• Employees at companies that provide flexible hours for religious observance are more than twice as likely to say that they look forward to coming to work. 
  
• When companies have policies on religious discrimination, their employees are less likely to be looking for a new job. 
  
• Regardless of a company’s size, workers whose companies offer education programs about religious diversity and flexibility for religious practice report higher job satisfaction than workers in companies that do not. 
  

It is sad and frustrating to see that religious affiliation (or the lack thereof) divides and marginalizes people at the place where we spend most of our time aside from home with our families . . . or perhaps even more than the time we spend home with our families!  Perhaps the time will come when the Tanenbaum survey will reflect a small single digit percentage (I vote for 0%!) of workers experiencing or witnessing religious discrimination or "non-accommodaton" in the workplace.  Until that time comes, it is our task to speak out, to ask for help and to try to find a way to bring this kind of redemption to the world ourselves.

As our e-mail inboxes and snail mailboxes flood us with advertisements of Labor Day Sales and we makes plans for one last long weekend before we settle down to the serious work of the academic year, the fall, work responsibilities and the High Holidays, I think we should take a moment to contemplate the origins of this week's long weekend:

As one might expect, the institution of Labor Day in the United States coincides with the growth of the labor union movement at the end of the 19th century.  The US Department of Labor website reports:

"Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country." 

The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 in New York City.  Ten thousand workers marched in a parade from City Hall to Union Square.  Within a year or two, the celebration of American labor was moved to the first Monday of September and was marked by parades, speeches and picnics for laborers and their families to enjoy a rare day off together.

Work is understood in our tradition to serve as a means of establishing security, self-esteem and a sense of responsibility for society in general.  Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, Associate Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies (Conservative) at the American Jewish University writes:
"...according to the rabbis, work is essential to personal development and to achieving religious depth and meaning.  Through work, humans assume their places in the social order as active agents, like Adam.  Work is a pathway to personal health, a conduit to greater understanding of Torah and of faith, and a mechanism through which one ultimately leaves a mark on this world.  For a person's work to achieve and maintain this degree of personal and religious meaning."*

Rabbi Peretz's reference to Adam goes back to the passage in Breishit/Genesis in which God informs Adam that he will now be responsible for producing his own food "by the sweat of his brow."  From this moment, humanity is transformed from God's "sheltered pets" in Eden to independent, responsible beings, creating and maintaining a social order, a system of justice and equity, developing ever-sophisticated means of producing food, clothing and shelter . . . which engage us to this day.

These are trying times for workers around our country, and in Rhode Island in particular.  As so many of our neighbors, friends, colleagues find themselves out of work, our appreciation for work and its significance in our daily private, family and community lives grows.

These insights and appreciation have deep roots in our tradition.  Rambam/Maimonides wrote in the Mishneh Torah, a thousand years ago:
"One is at a high level if he is sustained by the efforts of his own hand, a characteristic of the pious of early generations.  In this he merits all the honor and good of this world and the world to come, as it is written. "If you eat by the work of your hand, happy are you, and it will go well for you."  (Tehillim/Psalms 128:2).  Happy are you in this world and it will go well for you in the world to come."

I hope you will join me in a prayer that by Labor Day 2013, everyone in our community will know the deep satisfaction of "eating by the work of their hand . . . "


*"Social Justice and the World of Business," Walking With Justice, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, 2008.