Can I Wear My Kippah on Job Interviews? Career Guidance for Sabbath Observant Jewish Professionals

Lavie and Rachel Margolin. H. Delilah Business & Career, $16.95 trade paper (154p) ISBN 978-0-692432-76-1

A serious subject gets a superficial treatment in this slim volume intended to offer career, and life, advice to Orthodox Jews. The Margolins (Winning Answers to 500 Interview Questions), husband-and-wife career coaches, are well intentioned, but their efforts here will strike many as rudimentary, and thus a missed opportunity. For example, the authors cover the challenge of observing the doctrine of negiah, which requires Orthodox Jewish men to refrain from physical contact with women to whom they’re not related, in the workplace. Though they advocate openness about religious restrictions on occasion, the Margolins also suggest, in all seriousness, subterfuges that are not only dishonest but unsustainable, ­such as wearing a fake splint on one’s right hand, or pretending to have a cold, to excuse not shaking hands with women. Often, the guidance is unremarkable: “What is the perfect job? The answer to the question is unique to the individual.” Readers who need to be told to research companies to which they are applying are most likely to find this very basic guide of use. (BookLife)