Antisemitism at Microsoft and a Labor Union

Microsoft has been accused of preventing Jews at the company from forming ethnic identity groups similar to those provided to others, including blacks, Latinos, Muslims, which, according to the Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights, constitutes a violation of their civil rights.

I’ll let the dismal stories of antisemitism, both at Microsoft and at a New York labor union, speak for themselves. For as J.D. Salinger said about a very different matter, “The facts at hand presumably speak for themselves, but a trifle more vulgarly, I suspect, than facts even usually do.” You can find out more about those facts here: “Microsoft Accused of Antisemitic Discrimination,” by Dion J. Pierre, Algemeiner, May 15, 2025:

Microsoft Corporation denies Jews the right to form ethnic affinity groups despite maintaining a robust system of them for other identity categories, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law has alleged in a blistering letter urging the tech giant to correct what it says constitutes a flagrant violation of civil rights meriting legal action.

According to the letter, Microsoft employees may join Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) which correspond to “ethnic or racial identity” and foster “extra opportunities for professional development, career advancement, and the ability to collectively oppose discrimination in the workplace.” However, the company rules out Judaism as the basis for starting a Jewish ERG, nor does it recognize Jews, as does the US government, as an ancestral group. Thus, Jews at Microsoft are excluded from a form of social networking that can boost a career at the company to the highest levels of success, according to the Brandeis Center.

“Providing all employees equal access to professional benefits and opportunities, including Microsoft’s Jewish employees, is the right thing to do and is compelled by various federal and local anti-discrimination statutes,” said Brandeis Center co-chair Kenneth Marcus, who served as assistant civil rights secretary in the US Education Department under former President George W. Bush. “This discrimination must stop.”

ERGs also act as advocacy groups which combat discrimination, the Brandeis Center argues in the letter, providing employees a peer group which shares “their lived workplace experiences.” Additionally, the groups facilitate “corporate charitable giving” to community organizations providing essential social services and “educational events.” The groups further receive copious funding from the Microsoft Corporation’s department of human resources, an indicator of upper management’s faith in their purported missions.

“Jewish Microsoft employees are only permitted to organize themselves as an ‘Employee Community,’ a structure vastly inferior to an ERG in multiple ways,” the letter states. “Employee Communities receive no funding and only limited support from Human Resources and are not allowed to host educational events, participate in inclusive product design programs, or work with external groups outside of the annual Microsoft Give campaign.”

It continues, “Moreover, Microsoft’s insistence on defining Jewish identity inconsistent with its Jewish employees’ own self-definition has contributed to an environment that many Jews at Microsoft view as indifferent to antisemitism at best and antisemitically [sic] hostile at worst. Surely a Jewish ERG at Microsoft could have helped Microsoft avoid repeatedly failing to issue appropriate statements condemning rising antisemitism similar to its statements concerning other -isms, and failing to recognize important events in the Jewish calendar as Microsoft does for employees of other identities.”

On Wednesday, the author of the letter, Rory Lancman, who is the Brandeis Center’s senior counsel and director of corporate initiatives, implored Microsoft to accept that “Jewish employees have the same professional needs and aspirations as other ethnic minorities.”

He added, “Instead of dictating the terms of Jewish identity to its Jewish employees, Microsoft should listen to them and accept that to be Jewish is to be part of a people, not merely a faith … [They] can’t be denied those same opportunities to express themselves collectively about antisemitism, seek a better working environment, and achieve professional advancement.”…

It’s all too much, too sickening. Will Microsoft, perhaps after Steve Ballmer makes a call to Bill Gates, do something about the company’s failure to provide Jewish workers with the same opportunity to form an ethnic affinity group? I’ll be watching. Care to join me?