UPDATE 7/8/2025: The Brandeis Center sent out a press release, stating:
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law today commended Microsoft on its decision to equalize its treatment of its Jewish employee network, "Jews at Microsoft" (JAMS), alongside other recognized and funded ethnicity-based employee networks ….
Microsoft's nine top-tier employee networks, designated as Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), were company-recognized, sponsored, and supported organizations of employees within Microsoft based around a particular identifying characteristic, such as ethnicity, that afforded members of that ethnic group extra opportunities for professional development, career advancement, and the ability to collectively oppose discrimination in the workplace. Microsoft hadn't recognized religion as a category of identity permitted to establish an ERG, and refused to recognize the ethnic characteristic of Jewish identity; thus, Microsoft refused to recognize a Jewish ERG, denying Jewish Microsoft employees benefits that are provided to others. This violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Microsoft advised its various employee groups today that it is restructuring its employee network program so that all employee groups are equally recognized and funded, including JAMS.
ORIGINAL POST, 5/16/25: From the letter:
