Brooklyn, NY – Hikind To Host Major Meeting With Local Banks After Claim Orthodox Community Not Adequately Represented

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    Brooklyn, NY – Following a month-long survey of 22 local banks in Boro Park which revealed that the Orthodox Jewish community is not adequately represented in the existing workforce, Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) has organized a meeting with branch managers and human resources personnel to discuss community outreach strategies and potential vacancies.

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    Surveyors were asked to observe how many people, including tellers, worked in the bank?; How many were identifiably Jewish?; and Of those who are identifiably Jewish, how many were Chasidic, yeshivish, modern-orthodox or other? Hikind’s office also surveyed a dozen local banks located in Chinatown and half-dozen banks in Bedford Stuyvesant/Crown Heights as a means of comparison.

    “Our findings revealed that more than a dozen banks serving the Borough Park community have not made a concerted effort to recruit, train or hire the best and the brightest that our community has to offer,” Hikind said. “Though we are aware of many qualified candidates, the character of the Boro Park community is simply not reflected in the workforce of local banks. An evaluation of the same financial institutions located in Crown Heights, Bedford Stuyvesant, and Chinatown found that the people who lived in those neighborhoods also worked in the local banks.”

    Representatives from Astoria Federal Savings, Apple Bank, Chase, Dime, HSBC, Sovereign Bank, TD Bank, and others are expected to attend. The meeting will take place this Thursday at the Assemblyman’s district office. Mr. Zisha Novoseller of the Emergency Parnossa Initiative will also be present.

    Hikind previously partnered with the Orthodox Union to hold a job fair which, to date, has yielded employment for 67 people. “There is no better feeling in the world than knowing you have helped put someone back to work,” remarked Hikind. “I am hopeful that this meeting will result in even more opportunities for people in our community.”


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    36 Comments
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    12 years ago

    I’ve thought this for years; nine hundred Jews waiting on line at the bank, and not one working behind the counter or at the desks.

    DavidMoshe
    Active Member
    DavidMoshe
    12 years ago

    “Surveyors were asked to observe how many people, including tellers, worked in the bank?; How many were identifiably Jewish?”

    Unless my employer is a synagogue or other Jewish organization, I’d just as soon they not be working on keeping lists of the Jews (or whites, blacks, Asians, etc.) in their employ. An ethnic, religious or racial group is not entitled to a certain percentage of the jobs available at a private employer. If the OU wants to encourage more Jews to seek employment at banks, so much the better, but telling banks that they need to hire more Jews is just silly.

    ABrisker
    ABrisker
    12 years ago

    Let him go “survey” shop rite, costco, and mta drivers. Banks are a business.

    joeynathan
    joeynathan
    12 years ago

    this is all fine and dandy , however how about doing the same thing for Maimonides Hospital and get them to hire Jewish girls as nurses.

    Mentsh
    Mentsh
    12 years ago

    In order to gain meaningful employment in a bank, one must have an education.

    ProminantLawyer
    ProminantLawyer
    12 years ago

    When’s the last time you saw a police, a firemen or a sanitationer wearing a yarlmuckah?

    12 years ago

    i worked at a bank/broker in nyc but could not find a job here in bp in any bank even with 40 years experience

    AuthenticSatmar
    AuthenticSatmar
    12 years ago

    Why didn’t he survey, how many frum people applied for the jobs

    12 years ago

    Do we know if religious Jews applied and were not hired?

    CountryYossi
    CountryYossi
    12 years ago

    Lets get this straight Dov..How many heimishe people do u see working in kosher groceries and food establishments in the orthodox communities..
    # 1….No orthodox wants to shlep like Mexicans for 8-12 dollars and hour because they make better off sitting in Kolel and collecting….
    # 2…Bank jobs dont pay enough to get the off from Kolel..There is no future being a teller except if you can become the manager…So we will have 15 managers in BP.?
    I support Goldbergs grocery on 18th ave. even they are a bit more expensive but all register people are heimishe yingeleit with large families….

    CountryYossi
    CountryYossi
    12 years ago

    Sorry i also forgot to mention that Citibank on 54th street and 13th ave. had a yiddshe manager and was fired because he did favors for the heimishe business people ,covered their over drafts and the bank lost loads of money..Heimishe people working in banks will be facing every day pressure from customers to do transactions that is not in line with the banking department guide lines and then wind up loosing their jobs…Lets stay with the ones we have , they all do a great job and work on Pirim,Hoshane Rabbe,Erev yom tov,Chal Hamoyed and Tishe Bov…

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    12 years ago

    This sounds like an implicit demand for a quota. Is it not ok if theb banks have lots of yiddeshe employees but they daven with a reform or conservative minyan? Must they be from a specific chassidus ties to BP or would a bobover from Monsey or a yekker from Washington Heights also be OK?

    Hikind is engaging in the same type of racial profiling that have always hurt yidden when we get “too many” of our bochurim admitted into the top schools.

    DemsBeBabies
    DemsBeBabies
    12 years ago

    Chase bank has been hiring frum ppl in ask of their banks especially in flatbush and borough park.

    kankan
    kankan
    12 years ago

    HSBC on 13 has a chasidiher yingerman with volener tzitzin working there

    Hopefull
    Hopefull
    12 years ago

    I asked recently my banker at sovereign bank if I can get a job at the bank and he told me that they will glad to fill up all the empty desks in the bank with employees.

    Now the question is, did anyone apply for a banking job and got declined?

    DRE53
    DRE53
    12 years ago

    I’m sure banks will loss customers if they hire heimishe employees. As is custom in the frum community people want privacy and are concerned that the bank teller will discuss their bank balance in the kave shteibel

    12 years ago

    I worked for many years in a civil service position out of state, where there were relatively few Jews (especially observant Jews). I took off for all of the Yom Tovim, and left earlier on Friday afternoon. All of the aforementioned time came out of my accumulated vacation and personal leave. Yet, I could feel the undercurrent of resentment by my gentile co-workers. They could call in sick, and take time off, because of their personal proclivities (i.e. hitting the bottle), but they couldn’t stand a Jew taking time off for his holidays. In any event, the day that I retired from that job, and left that environment, was one of the happiest days of my life! Even when I came back to visit after I retired, I would still encounter hostility from former co-workers, who couldn’t stand that fact that I didn’t have to work there any longer.

    12 years ago

    To #31 -“Shred ready”- It seems to be in vogue today, whenever someone disagrees with a particular comment which someone has made, to attack that individual by referring to them as “a racist”, without any definitive proof, or the slightest evidence. There are individuals who have been successfully sued in civil courts of law (for slander, defamation of character, intentional infliction of mental distress), by referring to others as “racists”. For example, the Rev. Al Sharpton was successfully sued, and his organization had to cough up thousands of dollars in damages, as a result.