Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Coach Uses Hillel ‘If Not Now’ Quote To Sell High-End Bags

The luxury leather accessories brand Coach is employing Rabbi Hillel’s famous maxim to sell purses, it seems. A tipster sent the Schmooze an Instagram ad for Coach — an image of the brand’s classic design of oblong ‘C’s underneath the words “If Not Now, When?”

Spotted: Luxury Pirkei Avot Image by Instagram

The famous saying belongs to the first century rabbinic scholar Hillel, also known as Hillel the Elder. It has been borrowed by Emma Watson, Ivanka Trump, the band Inkubus, and the anti-Israeli-occupation group “If Not Now.”

Just in case you were wondering, Coach’s CEO is member of the tribe Joshua Schulman, so using the moral dictum to sell luxury goods is, arguably, part of his birthright. But Coach items tend to run in the mid-three-figures, price-wise. A more accurate Hillel quote for the brand might be part of the same quote, which Hillel-acolytes tend to leave off: “If I am only for myself, what am I?”

Jenny Singer is the deputy Lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.