Trump’s Executive Order Declaring Jews a Nationality: A Simple Statement of Fact

Today, December 11, 2019, President Donald J. Trump declared in an executive order that I, and my fellow Jews, are a nation. Judaism is a nationality.

Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. Your declaration will hopefully go a long way to help fight anti-Semitism, especially on college campuses. But, truth be told, all you did was to officially state a truth.

Jews are not a religious group. There is no word in Hebrew, by which I mean in the Bible/Torah/Old Testament, for “religion.” The word never appears. There is talk about “the People of Israel.” There is talk about goy and goyim, meaning “nation” and “nations,” but no talk about “religion,” or “religious.” The concept is nonexistent. “Religion” is a foreign concept to Jews. It is not a bad thing. It’s just not our thing.

I have searched the hundreds of books on my bookshelves, and in my Kindle, and have failed to find the book I know I read about the history of the Jews of France. The story, as I understand it, was really rather simply. Napoleon’s ministers went to him and told him that the Jews were a foreign nation living within France. That was unacceptable and, in keeping with the Inquisition, they should all be deported.

Napoleon, unlike the liberal media of today (I had to get one in!), wanted to check his facts. So he called together the leaders of the Jewish community and asked them if they were a people or a religion. Knowing that they would be deported if they said they were a people, they said they were are religion and, since then, Jews have been recognized, wrongly, as a religious group.

Using this new thing called Google that was invented by two Jews, I did a search for information on Napoleon and the Jews being declared a religious group and not a nation. The results were confusing, to say the least. In any event, the point is moot.

Religion is a belief. Christians believe that Christ was the Son of God. Catholics believe that Mary as a virgin. Muslims believe that Mohammed rose to heaven on a horse. God bless all of them. Believe what you want. For all I care, don’t believe in God. The bottom line is, if you take a blood test to check your DNA, it won’t be able to tell you what you believe, only what you are. So, for example, a DNA test can show that your are Jewish, British and Irish, French and German, and more, but not Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, or any other religion. Why? Because DNA shows nationality/race not religion. Your beliefs are not in your blood, but your nationality is. That’s the proof that Jews are a nation not a religion.

Want more proof? Think this is politics and not science? Well, Darwin didn’t care about politics. In Chapter VII of The Decent of Man, he writes, “…whilst Europeans differ but little from Jews, who belong to the Semitic stock and speak quite another language…” and references “The uniform appearance in various parts of the world of gypsies and Jews, though the uniformity of the latter has been somewhat exaggerated…” Sounds to me like he is referring to Jews as a people not a religion.

Of course, anti-Semites have long said that Jews are a race, albeit an inferior one. It’s rather pathetic the power that some people give to bigots. Just because human trash say something that happens to be true, does not mean it should be denied. Why liberals, and to the best of my knowledge they are the ones who do it, give such creatures so much power, is beyond my powers of comprehension (admittedly limited to begin with!). It has reached such a level of absurdity that even the “OK” symbol is now banned because “white supremacists,” who are superior to no one and nothing, use it. (Disgracefully, this nonsense is promoted by liberal Jews!)

So Jews are a nation, a race, not a religion. Never have been. Our contribution to humanity may have been monotheism, but I, personally, am more proud of the fact that we gave the world the first law book, the aforementioned Bible, along with its scholarly interpretation, The Talmud. That was the important contribution of the Jewish PEOPLE to the world; the idea of the rule of law.

But thank you, Mr. President, for your executive order and for your noble attempt to fight anti-Semitism. Only thing is, you didn’t declare us a nation, God beat you to it by a few millennia!

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Bruce Hurwitz, the Amazon international best selling author of The 21st Century Job Search and Immigrating to Israel, is an executive recruiter and career counselor. He has helped scores (thousands if you include attendees at his presentations) of people, including veterans, not only change jobs but, on occasion, change careers. Having successfully transitioned from academia to non-profits to the recruiting industry, he has been there and done that! A five-star rated speech writer on Fiverr, he is the host and producer of the live-interview podcast, Bruce Hurwitz Presents: MEET THE EXPERTS. 

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University or Trade School? What’s Better?

As my regular readers know, a couple of years ago I had the misfortune of working for a mercifully short time at a New York university focused on helping their IT students. What was most interesting was that, at the time, I don’t know the situation today (it really does not interest me), they were receiving tax payer dollars to run a special program where students would learn the hard- and soft-skills demanded by employers, and be put in touch with prospective employers to secure jobs.

Now, if you think about it, isn’t that what tuition is for? To learn the hard skills, to obtain the technical knowledge, to work in IT? To learn the soft skills, to learn the personality attributes to pass an interview and successfully interact with colleagues and clients. in other words, to succeed in the workplace?

Don’t get me wrong. I was once a fundraiser. If the government had offered me something like $700,000 to do something I was already supposed to be doing (and, in my case, would have been), I would have grabbed it, freed up my $700K and started a new program. That’s what I would have done.

One other thing. The program with which I was involved, offered educational classes and not just career counseling services. Students did not receive credit for those classes. In other words, they were not recognized by the Computer Sciences departments. Put differently, in essence, this accredited university had set up a non-accredited technical or trade school.

That reminded me of a job I had for a couple of years teaching at the Mechanics Institute of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen. My students included carpenters, plumbers, electricians and project managers. There was even a bricklayer! (I readily admitted that I did not know the job still existed.) It was one of the best jobs I ever had. The students were great and the school was unaccredited. Employers and the unions would send their employees/members to the Institute because of the quality of the instructors (myself excluded, of course!). Students would learn what they needed to progress on the job. The employers did not care about accreditation; they cared about skills. Can the person do the job or not? That was the only question that mattered. (And for their part, the students didn’t care because their graduation, so to speak, their certification, was recognized by their employers/union. That’s what mattered, not recognition by the State.)

And that brings me to something I have begun to see over the past few months while doing IT searches. A great many students seems to begin at a 4-year college and then drop out/transfer to a technical school. In one or two years they learn how to be a network engineer, a help desk technician, or what have you. Then they get a job, let’s say paying $60K. Two years later, their university graduate peer, gets a job paying $80K, but by then, the tech school graduate, is earning $80K and has two years of actual work experience. What’s more, they don’t have nearly the debt of the university grad, if they have any at all.

From the perspective of the client, what do they care if the person fixing their problem has a degree from a university or a technical/trade school, as long as they can fix the problem quickly and accurately?

And it’s not just IT. What about healthcare? Do you care if the person taking your x-ray graduated from college or from a tech school, as long as they x-ray the correct body part and the picture is clear? It’s the radiologist who you want to have the accreditation, not the “photographer.”

Here’s another example from health care. When you go to a lab to have your blood drawn (Why do they say “drawn?” I have never seen a single crayon in a lab only sharp needles!) do you ever ask about the phlebotomist’s education? I don’t. All I care about is that they find, hit the vein and it doesn’t hurt. (I’m not proud! I admit it. I don’t like needles!)

So there are plenty of jobs for which degrees and schools don’t matter. What matters is technical knowledge and the ability to interact with people professionally and respectfully.

My conclusion: If you are going for a technical degree, something for which you will have to use your hands, don’t waste you money on university or college. Also, unlike colleges which build their reputation on athletics sometimes to a greater degree than academics, and are plagued by politics, tech schools have only one selling point: How long it takes their grads to get work.

That said, there is something you will not get at a tech school that you will at college: a broader education. But today, that is not a problem.

You need to be a more complete person. You want to be interesting. You want to be able to speak intelligently, if not authoritatively, on a variety of topics. Well, there are perfectly good apps and websites for that. A few that come to mind are masterclass.com, udemy.com, onlinecouses.com, coursera.org, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/free-online-course, and study.com, to name but a few. And I am certain there are more.

Remember, it is always an advantage if you understand what your clients do. That’s how you impress them and how your advance in your career.

There is nothing new here. In fact, what I am proposing is literally ancient. There was this fellow who had barely one-year of formal education. He basically taught himself to read and write. He read any book he could get his hands on, even if that meant walking for miles barefoot because his parents could not afford to buy him shoes. Eventually he read law books and was mentored by a lawyer. In those days, that’s all that was needed to practice law. And he did. He wasn’t great at it, but, with all his self-learning, he had learned a lot and became a very good story teller (thanks to his listening skills) and orator. He entered politics, lost an election for the House of Representatives, but then was elected President of the United States. Now you may not be an Abraham Lincoln, but, if you think about it, Lincoln wasn’t Lincoln until he did what he had to do – learn! – to become Abraham Lincoln.

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Bruce Hurwitz, the Amazon international best selling author of The 21st Century Job Search and Immigrating to Israel, is an executive recruiter and career counselor. He has helped scores (thousands if you include attendees at his presentations) of people, including veterans, not only change jobs but, on occasion, change careers. Having successfully transitioned from academia to non-profits to the recruiting industry, he has been there and done that! A five-star rated speech writer on Fiverr, he is the host and producer of the live-interview podcast, Bruce Hurwitz Presents: MEET THE EXPERTS. 

The New Networking

How many times have we said it? How many times have we heard it? The majority of jobs are not advertised. The only way to find out about them, and they are usually the best jobs, is by networking.

So where do job seekers go to network? Networking events that usually are populated by job seekers! That is the definition of wasting time.

Then they try chambers of commerce. Better, but as a former board member of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce I can tell you that the solopreneurs are the ones who attend networking events, not the business owners with employees. So it is a waste of time, albeit to a lesser extent, since members know employers.

Of course, in both cases they are worth while as occasions to practice pitching and get comfortable in your own skin. Never underestimate the importance of practice!

Then there are the good events to attend: meetings of professional associations, lectures, and business networking groups. The problem with the latter is that they want business owners sitting around the table, not job seekers.

Which brings me to two suggestions. I know they work because they have worked for my career counseling clients. Now while this is “New York City-based,” I am certain there are similar possibilities elsewhere.

The idea is to network where most people don’t network. This means you have to be extra polite. Don’t make it appear that you are looking for a job. Make it appear that you are looking for a friend. And once the person becomes a friend, maybe they will be able to help with your job search. So be subtle. Be polite. Be proper. Be classy.

The first suggestion is to utilize the website www.clubfreetime.com. There you will find all sorts of events, from speakers to concerts. One client attended a concert at Carnegie Hall. He met a couple in the lobby after the performance – which, by the way, cost him a registration fee, if I remember correctly, of $4.50! They did not have to know he was sitting the “cheap seats.” Who cares? What does it matters? What matters is that, by definition, the fact that they were at the same place at the same time, meant that they had a shared interest – in this case, chamber music. A friendship developed and the husband was able to help my client land a great job. (In addition to concerts, there are also lectures, readings, tours, workshops and more.) Worse case, since it is virtually free, what’s the worst that can happen? You’ll learn something new!

The second suggest is the app Groupmuse. There you will find small classical music performances: quartets, soloists, and the like. The performances are at people’s homes. You pay $10 per performer. Here’s the idea: The host must have a nice home. After all, we are talking Manhattan! And the host will probably invite some of their friends who are more than likely in a similar socioeconomic class. In other words, these people have money. And if they have money, their either have businesses or know people with businesses. So you go to listen to the music, be polite to the attendees (none of whom will probably be able to help you, although you never know), and to be very polite to the host. One of my clients simply asked if she could help clean up. The host declined but accepted her business card. She called her and coffee led to an introduction which led to a job.

Bottom line, if you network where everyone else networks, you will get lost in the crowd. If you network where no one else networks, you may find gold “in them there hills!”

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Bruce Hurwitz, the Amazon international best selling author of The 21st Century Job Search and Immigrating to Israel, is an executive recruiter and career counselor. He has helped scores (thousands if you include attendees at his presentations) of people, including veterans, not only change jobs but, on occasion, change careers. Having successfully transitioned from academia to non-profits to the recruiting industry, he has been there and done that! A five-star rated speech writer on Fiverr, he is the host and producer of the live-interview podcast, Bruce Hurwitz Presents: MEET THE EXPERTS. 

What Job Seekers Can Learn From Johnny Carson

This article is based on the e-book edition of Henry Bushkin’s biography, Johnny Carson, published in 2014 by First Mariner Books. Johnny Carson was the undisputed king of late night television, reigning over the airwaves for some 29 years. Mr. Bushkin was his attorney, financial adviser, and “fixer.”

Ed McMahon was Carson’s “sidekick” for the entire time he was hosting The Tonight Show. It was a rather an odd pairing: Carson had served in the Navy as a Lieutenant Junior Grade while McMahon was a Colonel in the Marines. So for the first lesson for job seekers, and everyone else for that matter, comes from McMahon: leave your ego at the door! A colonel can work for a lieutenant, and very successfully at that!

But Bushkin, and now I am getting to the book, has a great quote from Carson on this very issue. When he was asked to which movie star he would compare himself, Carson answered, “Lassie. We’re both lovable, and we both come when we’re called.” (Page 14)

The second lesson comes from a quote from McMahon about Carson: He “was comfortable in front of [a television audience of] twenty million but just as uncomfortable in a gathering of twenty.” (Page 13) I remember watching Carson and how, when interviewing actors, he would bring about the issue of shyness. Carson was a shy man. Yet he had to overcome his shyness to become a success. So the lesson is, no matter how much you hate networking, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you, you have to overcome your discomfort. Networking is the major way to get a job and public speaking is the only way to reach the pinnacle of your industry. So, literally, take a deep breath (oxygen is a proven cure for tension), and start introducing yourself to strangers. If Carson could do it, so can you!

The third lesson is this: Carson “knew audiences and was pleased when they liked his work. He knew ratings and took pride in what they proved about his appeal. He treasured the respect of his peers in the industry. Awards were all but irrelevant.” (Page 146)

I remember reading not too long ago that if you post something on social media a third of people will buy from you but half (of everyone seeing your post, not half of the third) will buy less. The fourth lesson from Carson: When talking about why he never shared his political views with his audience he said, “Why lose fifty percent of my audience?” (Page 154) Keep politics out of the workplace and especially out for a job interview!

It can be very frustrating looking for a job, having the phone never ring and never getting an offers when it does. The fifth lesson for job seekers is a remark Carson made: “If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead.” (Page 183)

Finally, the sixth lesson is going to sound misogynistic and sexist. It is also going to explain the source of a popular commercial that has not aired in a while. But it is excellent advice. Always keep your personal and work life separate. This includes, with rare exception, during job interviews. As Bushkin explains, “Maybe the protocol was influenced by the old mobster tradition that is part of the DNA of Vegas, the one that dictates that family and work be strictly segregated, but it was made clear early, often, and explicitly that this was the custom on Las Vegas Boulevard: whatever you had to do, leave the wife out.” (Page. 185) For the record, he was talking about the rampant marital infidelity that went on among the star performers and, while they were given rooms in the hotels where they performed, wives never stayed the night!

Remember these six and you may just get that job offer!

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Bruce Hurwitz, the Amazon international best selling author of The 21st Century Job Search and Immigrating to Israel, is an executive recruiter and career counselor. He has helped scores (thousands if you include attendees at his presentations) of people, including veterans, not only change jobs but, on occasion, change careers. Having successfully transitioned from academia to non-profits to the recruiting industry, he has been there and done that! A five-star rated speech writer on Fiverr, he is the host and producer of the live-interview podcast, Bruce Hurwitz Presents: MEET THE EXPERTS.