The Jobs We Were

Why are universities becoming obsolete? Because most of what we teach will no longer be relevant in a few years. Within ten years, most of the professions that we educate towards will have morphed, atrophied, even disappeared. 

I found a poignant reminder last week when visiting the Museum of Libyan Jews in Or Yehuda. The museum is special (more on that in another book).

Jobs and profession are a critical part of our life and our persona – how we define ourselves.  After all, many family names are derived from professions (ostensibly of the head of the family at the time). 

In the basement life appears to go on as it did a century ago. I found Haim hard at work preparing typeset for the printing press. He is a typesetter. Very few young people today know that such a profession ever existed, and what it is. 

Here is Joseph, crafting pots and pans out of copper and other metals. Are there any copper smiths left in our world?

Moshe is a carpenter. Thankfully we still have a few of those. Still, but not for long. 

Menashe sits and waits for his next customer. He is a barber. There may be barbers in ten years. But maybe not. 

I haven’t gone to one in years (not that he would have much work to do on me). 

Jacob is a cobbler. He knows how to make shoes, as well as to fix them. 

This is how merchants in the market used to weigh fruits, vegetables, seeds, everything. Not any more. 

I stopped for a fresh kiln baked pita. Those are also hard to come by these days. 

Sophie is a weaver. If you go to Iran, you can still find some. 

And Motel is a tailor. He is an expert at his mechanical Singer sewing machine. 

Should I tell him what has happened to sewing machines and the clothing business? I better not. 

The Torah, containing the five books of Moses is still made by hand by special scribes writing each letter on parchment. This scroll is about five hundred years old. Scribes are still making Torah scrolls by hand, and will always be. 

At least some professions never change.