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Part I: Case Studies and Jewish Sources 3 First Case Study: Morally Troubling Jobs ELLEN AND Frank are two unrelated, single people in their 20s who are thinking about their future careers. Both come from middle-class families, and both still have college debts to pay off. Both of them have recently been offered jobs with salaries they never imagined that they could get at their age, Ellen in the clothing industry and Frank for a tobacco producer. Ellen discovers, however, that the firm offering her the job manufactures its clothing in factories in Southeast Asia where workers are exploited, receive low pay, and work under unsanitary and dangerous conditions. The tobacco producer offering Frank his job, in contrast, pays its workers well and even offers them substantial fringe benefits of health care and pensions; however, Frank has to confront the fact that this firm produces cancer-causing cigarettes and aggressively markets them to adolescents. The jobs offered to Ellen and Frank carry not only substantial salaries and fringe benefits but also offer them good opportunities for advancement and do not require more than 50 hours a week of work. Both Ellen and Frank are attracted by the possibility of paying off their debts and using their new, high-paying positions to help support their aging parents and even to make some significant contributions to charitable causes, but they are troubled by what they view as the moral compromises that they would have to make in working for such firms. Questions 1. How should Ellen and Frank balance the personal benefits to them of these high-paying positions against the moral considerations that weigh against taking them? 2. Would your assessment of their choice differ if they came from wealthy families and therefore had no previous debts and did not really need to make a big salary? 3. Would your assessment change if they were married and had children for whom they wanted to establish funds for their future education? 4. Would your assessment change if they had no particular interest in charitable giving but had a strong penchant for expensive cars and trips to Europe? Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: MONEY 4 5. Is the situation for Ellen different from that of Frank because of the moral issues involved in the two firms? 6. If Ellen is planning to get married and have a family and wants to earn a lot now in anticipation of time off that she expects to take from her career in the future to raise her children, does that change your assessment of what she should do now? If Frank also plans to marry (but not Ellen!) and have a family, does that affect what he should do now? If you answered differently for Ellen than for Frank, why? Traditional Jewish Sources Relevant to All Cases 1. Genesis 1:27–28 And God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female He created them. God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on the earth.” 2. Genesis 3:22 And the Lord God said, “Now that man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad.”—[After Eve eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.] 3. Genesis 18:20–25 Then the Lord said, “The outrage of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grave! I will go down to see whether they have acted altogether according to the outcry that has reached Me; if not, I will take note.” The men went on from there to Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Abraham came forward and said, “Will you sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? What if there should be fifty innocent within the city; will you then wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that the innocent and the guilty fare alike. Far be it from you! Shall not the Judge of the earth deal justly?” Part I: Case Studies and Jewish Sources 5 4. Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your...

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