Phone-athon for jobs

Jewish Vocational Service of MetroWest is asking the entire community to participate in the 10th annual JVS/MetroWest Synagogue JOB-ATHON (a phone-athon for jobs) being held at the Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany on Sunday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Our collective assistance is more critical than ever due to the ongoing unemployment crisis, especially in New Jersey. In January 2013, New Jersey’s unemployment rate was 9.5 percent, with 442,737 residents unemployed, compared to the national rate of 7.9 percent. New Jersey’s rate is one of the highest in the nation and is higher than last year when JVS held a JOB-ATHON.

An increasing number of unemployed and underemployed members of the Greater MetroWest community request services from JVS’s career counseling and placement department every day and these calls are expected to continue. In response, we are appealing to everyone to help us uncover job leads in our area’s “hidden job market.”

Please volunteer to ask Greater MetroWest residents to identify job vacancies (not donations) using a short telephone script that will be provided. If you receive a call, please describe any open positions you are aware of, in any field — from the mailroom to the boardroom — or relevant personal company contacts you may have in your network. To paraphrase Maimonides, the highest degree of charity is helping someone find work.

We hope you will join us and do a mitzva on behalf of your friends and neighbors. Thank you, in advance for your time and your support.

For further information, contact Jane Hecht at jhecht@jvsnj.org or 973-674-6330, ext. 294.

Jane Hecht
Coordinator of marketing and program development
JVS
East Orange