Jewish people are part of the rich tapestry of ethnicities and cultures that make up the United States, and while many may be familiar with aspects of Jewish culture, many may not be as aware of Jewish holidays, or why observing, celebrating, and participating in them is so important. Host Jennie Brooks sits down with Jill Mizrachy, Director of Career & Leadership Development at Booz Allen, to learn more about Pesach (which non-Jewish people may know as “Passover”), the concept of tikkun olam (the idea of leaving the world better than we found it), and how becoming more familiar with Jewish cultures can help us to challenge our own assumptions to foster greater inclusion and belonging in our workplaces.
Jewish people are part of the rich tapestry of ethnicities and cultures that make up the United States, and while many may be familiar with aspects of Jewish culture, many may not be as aware of Jewish holidays, or why observing, celebrating, and participating in them is so important. Host Jennie Brooks sits down with Jill Mizrachy, Director of Career & Leadership Development at Booz Allen, to learn more about Pesach (which non-Jewish people may know as “Passover”), the concept of tikkun olam (the idea of leaving the world better than we found it), and how becoming more familiar with Jewish cultures can help us to challenge our own assumptions to foster greater inclusion and belonging in our workplaces.
Jewish Holiday Salutations (source: Wikipedia):
Chag sameach - "happy holiday"
Gut yontiv - Good Yom Tov (Jewish holidays)
Shana tova/L'shanah tovah - [To a] good year
Tzom kal - Easy fast (during Yom Kippur)
Jennie Brooks:
Welcome to Booz Allen Hamilton's Unstoppable Together podcast, a series of stories that unite us and empower each of us to change the world. I'm Jennie Brooks with Booz Allen Hamilton, and I'm passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please join me in conversation with the diverse group of thought leaders to explore what makes them and all of us unstoppable.
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Unstoppable Together podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Brooks, and today I'm excited to be joined by Jill Mizrachy, director of career and leadership development at Booz Allen. Jill is also a mother and a Jewish woman, identities she blends into everything she does. Jill, welcome to the podcast.
Jill Mizrachy:
Thank you, Jennie.
Jennie:
I'm so excited to speak with you today because Booz Allen has just established recently it's Jewish Employee Community, and with that comes a commitment to grow our awareness of the Jewish community's culture through our own people's perspectives, their stories, their insights, their experiences, and that includes holidays, traditions, and practices. So, with Passover approaching, we wanted to take some time to learn more about this particular holiday and start by asking you—tell us what this holiday observes and why is it important to you personally?
Jill:
It's a great question and I'm thrilled to be here to talk about it. So most importantly, Passover is the retelling of the story of the exodus of the Jewish people, or who were known at the time as the Israelites who were enslaved. So, they were finally departing from Egypt. Originally, Jews were settled in Canaan, which today is modern-day, Israel or Palestine. And at the time, sort of gestures of kindness, if you will, were given to endear themselves to Pharaohs. And about 120,000 Israelites or Jewish captives were taken to Egypt from the area of Judea and given to Pharaoh as slaves. And they work there under extremely harsh conditions to build cities. So, as we read in Exodus, God enabled Moses to lead the Israelites out of bondage and bring them back to Israel, what sometimes you hear as the promised land. And this holiday, this story, Passover, what we refer to as Pesach is very central to the Jewish life because we are retelling that story about the escape of slavery.
And really this notion about the Jews were saved and they were, "passed over", which is what the word Pesach means. They were passed over and they were saved. And so, the telling of the story is really important to our history, and we do it over a meal. And that meal is called a seder Jennie, and “seder” means “order”. And that's because the retelling of the story is sort of this carefully choreographed story told in order, in a specific order intertwined with food to commemorate the events that are being retold. So, for example, we dip a little bit of what we call bitter herbs in salt water. And we eat that to remind ourselves of the bitter times of the slaves that the Jews were and the tears of pain and suffering. We eat unleavened bread, so that's called matzah, it's bread that didn't have time to rise because when Pharaoh said, okay, go, they were really afraid he was going to change his mind and they just had minutes to grab their stuff and leave and the bread didn't have a chance to rise.
So that's how some of the food associated with the story has come about and why it's so important to sort of intertwine the two together. So, for me, Jennie, the story of this redemption from slavery is almost like a master story of the Jewish people. It's a story that has shaped the Jewish consciousness and values. I believe it's just as relevant today as it was 3,000 years ago.
And so, if you think about it as Americans, while very few actual Israelites might've made the trek across Sinai, it's become our national story. So if you think about it for us, and I'm an immigrant to America, you think about our national story, about our collective ancestors who may or—you may or may not actually have an ancestor who came across to America on the Mayflower, but we all tell the story and we tell the story in America of us being this nation made of immigrants who have come here and created the sense of community. And so, the theme of Exodus and the leaving Egypt is almost like an archetypal story of the Western culture and really for the Jews. And it's our obligation to continue to tell the story.
Jennie:
Wow. I'm listening to you and I'm thinking about what the experience must be like for you as you go through Passover. And you mentioned the food, of course, across our conversations with people about their traditions, we've explored traditions of different cultures and religions through lens of food, clothing, other components. And I'm just sitting here wondering: what are some of the traditions that you have for Passover that really resonate with you during this experience?
Jill:
Yeah, it is central to the meal, and we gather friends and family. And if we're lucky enough, there might be children and grandchildren sitting at the table. And I have in years gone by, even had people who've been interested in learning more who are not Jewish, who sit around the table with us, and we tell the story, as I said, the word seder, we tell the story in order, but I try and make it interactive. So maybe it's the L&D, the learner in me. Maybe it's because I'm a mother and keeping children paying attention for a couple of hours at the table. So, we try and make it as interactive and memorable as possible.
So, for example, at my table, and many friends do this as well, we might have little frogs on the table. Frogs are one of the 10 plagues. And when you're telling the story about the plagues, you pretend for the little frogs to be jumping. We always sit with pillows at every seat, and we sort of lean comfortably and we pour wine for each other, which is a way to commemorate that we're now free, that we're no longer enslaved. There is a tradition always for the youngest at the table to ask four very prominent questions about why we eat unleavened bread, why do we dip in salt water? And I personally love that because it forces the youngest who sometimes is just maybe five years old to practice and to prepare, and they've got a very central part at the dinner table. And it's a big deal because everyone keeps quiet, and the youngest person has their opportunity to ask these questions. And then we all answer the questions.
And the other thing that we do is everybody has a book in front of them. We call the book the Haggadah, and we go around the table and everyone has a chance to read. So, you think about any training situation, any classroom, any meeting, if you're just sitting there passively, you're not as engaged. When it's your turn to read or it's your turn to explain something or to participate in a song, you're much more vested, you're much more engaged, and it becomes more memorable.
In my family, Jennie, we've started more recently another tradition where we go around the room and everybody's got to answer the question, what enslaves you today? And we bring it to the modern day. Some people are enslaved by their cell phones, they're hooked on it. It weighs down on them. They can't get rid of it. And some people may talk about work or eating habits, and we provide encouragement to free yourself from that, which enslaves you today. And so even using it as a metaphor around creating a sense of freedom and not to feel enslaved even in today's world, is something we try and bring into the story as well.
Jennie:
I'd be remiss as I'm listening to you, I would be remiss without asking about, obviously since the war began between Hamas and Israel, there has been a very tangible increase in tension as the public grapples with their understanding of the complexity and the issues involved here. How have you felt about that, and can you share with us a little bit of your perspective and how it maybe factors into Passover itself?
Jill:
It's hard. It's hard for everyone. Jennie, I'll be honest with you. It's a heartbreaking situation. While one doesn't typically want to bring politics or these kind of things into a celebration, one cannot face something like Passover without both being incredibly grateful that the Jews have survived not only slavery in Egypt, but other horrific events in our history. And one prays that this war will end soon and as peacefully as possible. But it is also for me personally, a reinforcement of how important it is to tell the story. We need to keep our traditions and our values and our focus alive, and hopefully we do it in a way that there can be peace for all, for everyone.
Jennie:
Yes. Absolutely. As we talk more about recognizing the religious facets of our employees' lives, our colleagues' lives at a very practical level, that means just better understanding some of the influences on work, whether it be scheduling or dietary restrictions or days of observance. So, people are listening who want to better understand that. What would you offer them?
Jill:
So, a couple of things. First of all, I find it heartwarming when a colleague takes the time to learn the correct salutation. I find it incredibly wonderful. It's an act of kindness. It's an act of care, consideration when someone not only knows it's a religious holiday and something I'm observing, but they reach out and they use the correct words, which are not always easy to say like, “chag sameach” or “shana tova”, but I think it's really respectful and really kind. And you know what it instills in me? Is this sense that I too need to learn other colleagues, religion and their practices and how do I, what's the correct salutation that I should give them? And so, it is just a way that kind of I think perpetuates goodness and helps increase that for all of us. On the other hand, I also have learned over the years of having a sense of humor because sometimes people don't realize that Passover is observed for seven days, and we can't eat bread.
And so, somebody might realize it because you're out on the first day or the second day, and then you come back to work five days later and there's a meeting and they serve lunch and there's sandwiches for everyone, and they may not realize it. Or I go to the grocery store and it's not even Passover. It might be Rosh Hashanah or Hanukkah, but they bring out the matzah because they think it's a Jewish holiday, let me put all the Jewish things on the shelf. So, I try not to be offended. I appreciate the intention.
I also have had wonderful colleagues in Booz Allen who will turn on all of the calendar notifications on their Outlook. And so, they're aware when it's a holiday. If there is a meeting, they will reach out to me. They will ask me, "What can you eat? What can't you eat? Can you join a meeting on this day? Or can't you?" And I think with modern technology, it's so easy to do. It doesn't take a lot for all of us to know more about each other, just sort of turn it on, just enable all holidays. And there it is. It pops up on Outlook, and then it takes a minute to just reach out and ask.
Jennie:
Okay, so enable all holidays on your Outlook. And I think we'll also add to the show notes, some of the salutations, and people can also reach out to Jill and I'm sure with your humble questions so we can all learn and improve and support one another. I love that. Jill, at the end of every podcast, we give our guests some free space to share their final thoughts. What would you like to leave us with today?
Jill:
Well, I'm going to sort of bring us full circle, and I'm going to end with how you started. I'm both a Jewish woman and a mother, and I like to bring those Jewish values into my life and into everything I do. And you may say, "Jill, what are Jewish values?" And first and foremost, Jewish values believe in what we call “tikkun olam”, and tikkun olam means that we leave the world a better place. And so, I bring that philosophy into everything I do, whether it's around parenting my children, whether it's around a big project that I'm leading, whether it is cleaning a room in the house or guiding folks on my team. I try and do it in a way that I believe they will be better off because I was there, and that the situation was better because I was there, and I leave it better than I found it.
And that's a central value which I bring to everything I do. The second value that I bring to everything that I do is that we're not the top of the chain. Some people may see, for example, religious men wear a covering on their head. People call it a kippah or a yarmulke. And that's just sort of an overt physical reminder that we are slightly beneath something else. And that sort of brings to me personally a sense of humility. Again, being a mother or being a project leader or a leader of a team, I realize that I am ultimately not supremely powerful. I bring my very best. My intention is to leave the people, or the situation better than I found it. But at the end of the day, I try and guide my life and my work with a sense of humility and gratitude for things that I'm part of. So that's me.
Jennie:
Thank you, Jill.
Jill:
Thank you, Jennie, for having me.
Jennie:
Thanks for listening. Visit careers.boozallen.com to learn how you can be unstoppable with Booz Allen. Be the future. Work with us. The world can't wait.