A legal watchdog group sent a warning letter to Microsoft on Monday alleging that it is violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by refusing to recognize a Jewish Employee Resource Group, Jewish Insider has learned. 

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law said its next step will be to file a federal lawsuit alleging violation of Title VII — which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin — within two weeks if the tech giant continues to deny Jewish employees the ability to establish an ERG. 

Currently, Microsoft sponsors nine ERGs, which distribute professional benefits to employees based on a particular identifying characteristic, such as ethnicity, race, age or sexual orientation. The programs, which fall under the company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department, are designed to give extra opportunities for professional development, career advancement and the ability to collectively advocate against discrimination in the workplace. Microsoft’s ERGs provide benefits including financial support to engage in mentoring, professional development and advancement and access to senior executives for networking. 

Microsoft, like most companies, does not recognize religion as a category of identity permitted to establish an ERG. 

Refusal to recognize Jewish ERGs is “rooted in a form of antisemitism,” according to Rory Lancman, director of corporate initiatives and senior counsel at the Brandeis Center, who sent the letter to Microsoft.

“The mistake that most companies make is that they pigeonhole Jewish identity as being purely religious and therefore denies their Jewish employees the opportunity to form an ERG based on their Jewish identity,” Lancman told JI. “A Jewish identity is not confined to shared religious beliefs but is in fact an ethnicity.”

“The failure of companies to recognize Jewish identity for what it is and how their Jewish employees are explaining their identity creates a system where Jewish employees are left out of this very valuable resource,” Lancman said. 

The rise in antisemitism sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks and ensuing war in Gaza has impacted institutions from college campuses to Fortune 500 companies. 

A Jewish Microsoft employee involved in the effort to establish a Jewish ERG, who spoke to JI on the condition of anonymity, described a workplace where “employees have led protests on our main campus, interrupted corporate events and sent unsanctioned company-wide emails, all claiming that Microsoft is complicit in helping Israel commit genocide.” 

“Microsoft leaders have not recognized that these incidents are part of a larger pattern and addressed them as such, so that I feel safe at work — and I can’t help but feel that this would have been swiftly addressed if these incidents had targeted one of the groups that has an ERG,” the employee said.  

Other antisemitic activity at Microsoft, according to the Brandeis Center’s letter, has included messages that were posted in an internal chat soon after the Oct. 7 attacks that called for eradication of Israel, promoted violence against Jews and claimed that Jewish employees complain about antisemitism too much. The company has also declined to acknowledge Jewish Heritage Month and does not currently offer training on combating workplace antisemitism. 

Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment from JI. 

“Not having a Jewish ERG on the same terms and conditions of other ethnicity based ERGs is a serious impediment to resolving antisemitism that exists in the workplace,” Lancman said. “The lack of a Jewish ERG is both a feature of antisemitism at the workplace and an accelerant of it.”