Jewish professionals are experiencing, in addition to other social problems wreaked by antisemitism, higher rates of discrimination in employment.By Dion J. Pierré, The AlgemeinerJLens, an investment network affiliated with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), released on Wednesday a “Workplace Tracker” for evaluating major corporations based on their adoption of policies and practices that support and make life easier for Jewish employees.Focusing on the 100 largest public companies by market capitalization, JLens says its new tool “provides a transparent, data-driven framework for understanding how leading US companies can support Jewish employees and address antisemitism in the workplace.”The organization conferred ratings of Gold, Silver, and Bronze, basing its assessment on 14 metrics across three categories: “Jewish experience in the workplace, religious accommodations, and workplace protections.”Companies such as Apple, Citigroup, Netflix, and American Express were placed in the lowest tier for registering a level of disregard for the challenges facing Jewish workers—such as paid time off requests for Jewish holy days.Amazon, Spotify, and Pfizer all placed “Gold,” while Meta, Microsoft, and Thermo Fisher Scientific took home “Silver” ratings.JLens’ Workplace Ratings come just ahead of the annual Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah (the new year) and Yom Kippur (the day of atonement), which are quickly followed by Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah.This string of holidays typically straddles the late summer and early fall, and observant Jews are not supposed to work on seven days throughout the roughly three-week period.The holidays can fall on weekends, depending on the Jewish calendar in a given year.Beyond holiday flexibility, there are other ways companies can show their regard for Jewish religious observance, JLens noted, including prayer space and kosher meals.JLens added that some Jewish professionals may not even know they are entitled to them or they may hesitate to request so-called “special treatment.”“Asking for religious accommodation is not easy. A new Jewish employee who has not accrued enough time off, facing the Jewish High Holidays a few weeks into the job, has to decide whether to raise it with a manager they barely know,” JLens managing director Ari Hoffnung said in a statement.“When a company publishes its religious accommodation policy and walks new hires through it at orientation, that employee is asking for something routine rather than something extraordinary. That is one of 14 policies and practices the Workplace Tracker looks at. The companies recognized here are the ones putting information where people can find it.”Jewish professionals are experiencing, in addition to other social problems wreaked by antisemitism, higher rates of discrimination in employment, as previously reported by The Algemeiner.In May, Jewish community advocates called on the US Congress to use its lawmaking power to stop health care unions from spreading antisemitism in the workplace through anti-Zionist advocacy, arguing that unions have wasted resources and countenanced flagrant discrimination of Jews throughout the field of medicine.Addressing the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, lawyers, health workers, and civil rights activists shared a stream of claims alleging that union bosses have effectively converted labor unions into political action committees for the anti-Zionist movement.The consequence, they argued, has been to embolden those who mistreat Jews as a “proxy” for Israel, leading to incidents of bigotry that would be decried were they perpetrated against other minority groups.“The issue is not whether health care workers may hold political views,” Deena Margolies, litigation staff attorney for the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told the committee.“The problem arises when health care unions use their authority and resources to promote antisemitic campaigns outside their labor mission. Jewish and Israeli health care professionals are then placed in an impossible position: The union that is supposed to represent them is also helping to create the hostile work environment they must endure.”Anti-Zionist union activity even affects patient care, Margolies added, noting that some mental health practitioners now offer services that they say can “decolonize” patients of pro-Zionist viewpoints.The enterprise is predicated on the idea that Zionism, which an overwhelming majority of Jews say is central to Jewish identity, is a pathology.In 2024, the ADL found that Jewish and Israeli Americans are facing “substantial discrimination” in the US job market, as recruiters filter them out of hiring pools after discerning their heritage through their last names and resumes.Conducted by California State University Channel Islands economics professor Dr. Bryan Tomlin, the study, titled “Jewish and Israeli Americans Face Discrimination in the Job Market,” found that job seekers with names that “sound” Jewish and resumes that “signal” a likely Jewish background needed to send 24.2 percent more inquiries to potential employers to gain an equal number of positive responses as non-Jews.For Israelis, the number was higher, with 39 percent more inquiries required for receiving equal responses.“Without the benefit of a study of this kind, it is difficult, if not impossible, to prove adverse treatment in the labor market based on one’s religion or cultural identity,” Tomlin said in a press release.“This study shows that Jewish and Israeli Americans may be missing out on job opportunities just because of their identity, not their qualifications, and it provides a start toward quantifying some of these more subtle but still harmful symptoms of antisemitism.”The post JLens unveils ‘workplace tracker’ to evaluate companies on support for Jewish employees appeared first on World Israel News.