One-Size-Fits-All Assumptions About Jews Do Not Work

May is Canadian Jewish Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the rich histories, cultures, and contributions of Jewish communities across Canada while also reflecting on the realities Jewish people continue to navigate in workplaces, institutions, and public life. For organizations committed to building an inclusive workplace and strengthening workplace culture, this month also offers an important opportunity to challenge assumptions about Jewish identity and belonging.

Canadian Jewish identity is diverse, layered, and deeply complex. Yet workplace conversations about Jewishness are often shaped by narrow stereotypes and one-size-fits-all assumptions. Inclusive leadership requires moving beyond those assumptions to better understand how Jewish identity intersects with race, class, politics, culture, religion, migration, and lived experience.

Ask someone to picture a Jewish person and you will often get a singular image: white, religious, wealthy, and reliably aligned with the State of Israel. That image is incomplete, and in important ways, inaccurate. In Canada, home to the world’s fourth-largest Jewish community, Jewish identity spans race, geography, language, observance, politics, and socioeconomic realities. These stereotypes flatten a community that has never been singular. In workplaces, they can fuel anti-Semitism, erase Jews who do not fit dominant narratives, and undermine efforts to create truly inclusive workplace cultures rooted in belonging and psychological safety.

Let’s Debunk Some Common Myths

“Jews are all rich.”

This stereotype has roots in centuries of anti-Semitic propaganda, and it does not reflect reality. As of 2015, approximately 14.6% of Canadian Jews lived below the poverty line. In Montreal alone, 70% of single Jewish young adults aged 18–24, 41% of Holocaust survivors living alone, and 38% of never-married middle-aged Jewish men lived below the poverty line.

Social service agencies continue supporting thousands of low-income Jewish families each year, particularly as housing costs rise across Canadian cities. Yet workplace culture conversations rarely include Jewish poverty because dominant narratives position Jewish communities as universally privileged. 

What can you do? When organizations rely on assumptions instead of listening to lived experiences, workplace culture solutions often fail to address the realities employees are navigating. Listen to your clients and the folks you are serving.

“Jews are all white.”

Jews are a global people. Ethiopian Jews, Indian Jews, Yemenite Jews, Persian Jews, Moroccan Jews, and Latin American Jews exist in significant numbers alongside Black, Asian, Sephardi, Mizrahi, and multiracial Jews across the diaspora.

The 2021 Canadian census recorded approximately 14,000 Jews identifying as visible minorities, though that figure likely undercounts many Sephardi Jews (ancestry from Spain/Iberia), Mizrahi Jews (Middle East, North Africa and Central Asian ancestry), Ethiopian Jews, and mixed-race Jewish communities. In the United States, estimates of Jews of Colour range between 8% and 15%, and younger generations are increasingly racially diverse.

What can you do? This matters in the workplace because assumptions about who “looks Jewish” can invisibilize entire groups of people. Inclusive workplaces cannot effectively address discrimination if their understanding of identity is overly simplistic or rooted in stereotypes.

“All Jews are religious.”

Jewish identity is religious for some, cultural for others, and ancestral, ethnic, or political for many more. Canadian Jews are atheist, agnostic, secular, observant, spiritual, and everything in between. Jewish communities include Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Humanist, secular, and unaffiliated Jews.

There has never been one way to be Jewish.

What can you do? This is an important reminder that identity cannot be reduced to a checkbox or assumed level of observance. Jewish employees, regardless of how they identify, may require accommodations around holidays or dietary practices.  

“All Jews support Israel.”

This is where the picture becomes more complex than stereotypes allow.

The 2025 Survey of Canadian Jews (Leger, November 2025) found that 70% of Canadian Jews defend Israel’s actions in Gaza, reflecting a more pro-Israel stance than many American Jewish communities. Yet Canadian Jewish opinion is far from monolithic.

Just over half of respondents opposed settlement expansion. A majority supported a two-state solution, and support for Canadian sanctions on violent Israeli settlers rose significantly between 2024 and 2025. Nearly half believed Netanyahu’s judicial reforms threatened Israeli democracy. Jewish organizations critical of Israeli state actions have also been part of public discourse for years.

The shift is real, even if it looks different in Canada than it does in the United States.

Jewish communities also differ in how they understand safety and belonging. Historically, movements such as the Jewish Labour Bund rejected the idea that Jewish safety required an ethnostate. Instead, Bundists advocated for doikayt (“hereness”), the belief that Jewish safety comes through solidarity, justice, labour organizing, and collective liberation in the places where Jews already live.

What can you do? These conversations are deeply emotional and politically charged, and many Jewish employees are navigating them quietly inside workplaces every day. Inclusive workplace cultures must make space for nuance without demanding that Jewish employees become spokespeople, educators, or representatives for an entire community. Consider bringing Curated Leadership into your workplace for training on Courageous Conversations - we help you develop these conversation skills.

Conspiracy Theories Are Not “Perspectives”

The claims that Jews “killed Jesus,” “control Hollywood,” or are secretly orchestrating global events are not harmless stereotypes or political disagreements. They are anti-Semitic conspiracy theories with centuries-long histories that have justified violence, exclusion, and discrimination from the Crusades to recent attacks on Canadian synagogues and Jewish schools.

Naming anti-Semitism clearly matters. Workplace culture suffers when hate is minimized, normalized, or reframed as “just another opinion.” Organizations committed to psychological safety and inclusive leadership must understand how conspiracy theories operate and why they remain dangerous.

Why This Diversity Matters

A community this varied in race, class, politics, culture, and lived experience cannot be reduced to a single narrative. Recognizing the full complexity of Jewish life in Canada and beyond creates space for more meaningful solidarity: with Jewish workers experiencing poverty, with Jews of Colour organizing for racial justice, with Jewish employees navigating anti-Semitism, and with Jewish dissenters advocating for peace, democracy, and human rights.

Stereotypes serve no one. They weaken workplace culture, distort understanding, and make belonging conditional.

The truth is that Jewish identity is plural, evolving, contested, and alive. And understanding that complexity is essential for organizations seeking to build inclusive workplaces where employees feel safe bringing their full identities to work.

What Can Leaders and Organizations Do?

Building inclusive workplace cultures requires more than symbolic gestures. It requires ongoing learning, accountability, and intentional workplace culture solutions that support psychological safety for everyone.

Here are a few starting points:

• Do not assume. Ask respectful questions and allow people to define their own identities and experiences.

• Review workplace policies and reporting structures related to discrimination, harassment, and bias.

• Recognize Jewish holidays and create flexibility for employees who choose to observe them.

• Ensure DEI conversations include anti-Semitism alongside other forms of discrimination. Use The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism as a resource for understanding the definition of anti-Semitism.

• Avoid expecting Jewish employees to explain geopolitical conflicts or represent an entire community.

Interested to learn more on anti-Semitism and how to have these difficult conversations in the workplace?  Curated Leadership solves your politically charged workplaces conflicts through dialogue and reflection to create psychological safety and effective leadership.  Email us or book a call today and learn more!

Sources & Methodology

2025 Survey of Canadian Jews (Leger, November 2025). Conducted November 4–19, 2025, by Leger on behalf of JSpaceCanada, the New Israel Fund of Canada, and Canadian Friends of Peace Now. Sample of 502 self-identified Jewish voters, weighted by age, gender, region, and denomination based on the 2021 Census of Canada and the 2018 Survey of Jews in Canada. Maximum margin of error of 4.0%. Designed and analyzed by political analyst Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin.https://nifcan.org/2025-survey-canadian-jews-attitudes-toward-israel-gaza-and-canadian-policy/

Washington Post poll on American Jews and the Gaza war (October 2025). Conducted September 2–9, 2025, with 815 American Jewish respondents and a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/06/jewish-americans-israel-poll-gaza/

2021 Census of Canada — Jewish demographics. Statistics Canada recorded 335,295 Canadians identifying as Jewish by religion, with Ontario hosting 58% of the population, Quebec 25%, and British Columbia 8%. About 14,000 Canadian Jews identified as visible minorities (3.6% of the community). Analysis by sociologist Robert Brym (University of Toronto) for The Canadian Jewish News:https://thecjn.ca/news/canada-jewish-census/

Canadian Jewish poverty data. Federation CJA's analysis of the 2021 long-form census for the Montreal Jewish community:https://www.federationcja.org/en/jewish_montreal/demographics/. National poverty rates by city drawn from Jewish Federations of Canada – UIA's 2011 National Household Survey analysis (most recent comparable national figures available).

Angus Reid Institute (August 2025) — Canadian public opinion overall. Found that 52% of Canadians believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, including 74% of Liberal Party supporters; sympathy for Palestinians (37%) now exceeds sympathy for Israelis (19%).https://www.cjpme.org/pr_2025_08_07_poll_genocide

Jews of Color demographic estimates (U.S. comparison). The Jews of Color Initiative's 2019 Counting Inconsistencies report estimates 12–15% of American Jews are Jews of Color; Pew Research Center's national figures are 6–8%.https://thejoci.org/research/

Bibliographic Citation (Random House, 2026):

Author: Molly Crabapple

Title: Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund

Publisher: Random House

Publication Date: April 7, 2026

ISBN: 9780593229453 (Hardcover), 0593229452 [1]