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Jewish World Review Feb. 2, 2000/ 29 Shevat, 5760
Redmond Diarist
The economy is doing just fine -- and so is Judaism at Microsoft
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
WHEN SUZI LEVINE began working at Microsoft more than six years ago, her recruiter joked with her, "Here's your salary, here's your stock options and here's your spouse."
Finding a Jewish community was also a priority for LeVine, who had been president of the Jewish Student Union at Brown University, where she received an engineering degree.
At first, she joined a young-adults group at the University of Washington in Seattle, 20 minutes from Microsoft's company headquarters in Redmond, Wa. "It was an easy transition, Hillel to Hillel," said the 30-year-old LeVine, who grew up in Atlantic City as Suzi Davidson.
But, over the years, she has become more active in the general Jewish community and, as the recruiter predicted, LeVine ended up marrying another (Jewish) Microsoft employee.
Since 1990, Microsoft's worldwide head count has grown from about 5,000 to more than 30,000, including about 17,000 employees working in Redmond. In the same period, the company's yearly net income has increased from $279 million to $7.79 billion.
Although Microsoft does not keep statistics regarding religious affiliation, Jewish employees estimate their number at 10 to 15 percent of the company. They describe a merit-based system that rewards productive performers with high salaries, cash bonuses and stock options. There are no signs of glass ceilings for Jews: From CEO Steve Ballmer to the lowest intern, Jews -- from North America and Israel -- can be found at all levels of the company.
Despite the growth of the Seattle Jewish population, some still wonder how long the new arrivals intend to remain. Burnout from the high demands of working at Microsoft is not unknown. Swift financial reward also offers the attraction of geographic mobility and a quick return to childhood homes back east.
To his surprise, a rabbi arrived instead of a mohel. The circumcision had taken place in the hospital, and only the traditional
blessings were said in the home.
"I was upset," admitted Bolnick, who was then a doctoral student in physiology at the University of CaliforniaDavis. He was
also torn by his own lack of observance and a deep sense that the ceremony should have been different.
Bolnick decided to become a mohel himself, but he quickly learned that the process was not so cut and dried. The liberal
Jewish seminaries lacked training programs at the time, while other mohelim viewed him as a potential competitor and were
reluctant to train him.
He studied on his own and eventually found two Orthodox mohelim in San Francisco who were willing to take him on as an
apprentice. Another break came when a colleague who was a pediatric urologist invited him to observe as repair work was
done on poorly executed medical circumcisions.
"You learn more from seeing someone's mistakes than seeing the successes," said Bolnick.
By the time Bolnick performed his first bris milah in 1986, he said, he "was more concerned about messing up the blessings
than Š messing up the circumcision." Raised in a Conservative household, the California-native was more uncomfortable with
the Hebrew language than with a scalpel.
Financial success at Microsoft -- where Bolnick works as a government-affairs manager for the accessibility and disabilities
group -- has not curbed his enthusiasm for performing the ritual.
Since moving to Seattle in 1990, Bolnick has performed hundreds of circumcisions throughout the Pacific Northwest and
Alaska. He said his co-workers get a kick out of his sideline profession. "We have a very diverse group, and a testament of
that is that one of us is a mohel," he said.
Now observant, Bolnick said he receives as many calls for his services from intermarried couples as he does from households
with two Jewish parents, but he will only perform circumcisions on the sons of Jewish mothers. He said he does about one
circumcision per week.
The saddest part of the job, however, comes when he enters a room and realizes that the only reason the ceremony is taking
place is to please the grandparents. "You realize that in that family," he said, "this may be the last generation that will follow
Jewish practice."
LeVine's decision to lay down roots is mirrored by Robert Cape, a 30-year-old product unit manager at Microsoft. Cape and his wife, Bonnie, recently had their first child and also finished construction on a country home.
As Cape has given signals of staying on long-term, the Jewish community has welcomed him more and more into its leadership.
The Montreal-native is a member of the board of Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Synagogue on Mercer Island. He is also
serving his second year as campaign chair for the Young Leadership Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
And the boom has also only just begun, according to Rabbi David Fine, director of the Seattle branch of the Florence Melton Adult Mini School.
Fine, a Seattle resident since 1993, said he sees plenty of signs that the high-tech crowd is settling in for a long stay. He pointed to the growing enrollment in local Jewish day schools in the area, the greater availability of kosher food, the number of secular Jewish organizations being started and the greater number and variety of clergy in the area.
"At one point, to move to Seattle was to isolate yourself," he said. "Now, it's the core of what's happening."
HIGH-TECH COMMUNITY
A few weeks later, Seres received a message about a wilderness hike being
organized by the University of Washington Hillel. At the event, he said, he not only made new friends, but ran into a few old ones, as well.
Such internal interest groups have long been popular at Microsoft, with aliases for music, sports and other hobbies in addition to ethnic and religious groups. As the company grew, however, employees say, the burden on the e-mail system became too great. Three years ago, Microsoft decided to change the system; instead of internal e-mail, the groups all have computerized bulletin boards on which members can post events, ask questions or seek friendship.
"The difference is technical," said Seres, taking a neutral position on the change. "One is push and one is pull. It's now pull, and there is significantly less traffic on it as a result. [But], for people who want to find community, it is there."
Joseph Landes, a marketing manager, said the old system was worse. "You were barraged with mail," he complained. "It could be 100 pieces a day." Responses to the question of where to get the best bagel in Seattle seemed to drag on forever, he added.
Longtime employees note that JAMs has declined in the past few years. They said it was always more of a social and religious organization than an advocacy group.
Santiago Rodriguez, director of diversity at Microsoft, said he meets with 16 different diversity organizations within the company on a regular basis, mostly traditional racial and gender groups, but not with any religious groups, currently.
"Minority groups meet when there is a lot of discomfort and you need to find peace and quiet. [Jews] feel comfortable at Microsoft and do not feel the need to meet formally," said the 54-year-old Rodriguez. His own mother is a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who found a haven in Guatemala.
Microsoft employees like LeVine, Cape and Malcolm Haar were at the heart of the Seattle Young Leadership Division's effort on Super Sunday in mid-December, working the phones with more than 20 other young professionals at the offices of Alaskan Copper and Brass.
One volunteer approached Cape, the YLD campaign chair, with a stack of solicitation cards for Microsoft employees. He flipped through them quickly, pulling out the records of prospective donors who prefer face-to-face contact and those who simply do not give at all.
"One hundred percent of my Federation time is spent reaching out to Jewish employees at Microsoft for solicitations," explained Cape, who moved to Seattle six years ago. "Microsoft employees have a bodacious amount to give, and I have a knack for getting that money."
Since 1996, the local Federation's pledge goal has risen from $5 million to $8 million. That's not as fast a jump as Microsoft stock has taken, but it's a healthy 60 percent increase. Barry Goren, acting head of the Seattle Federation, noted that in the last five years the campaigns have received between 500 and 1,000 new donors each year, although 90 percent of the total dollar amount continues to be given by 10 percent of the donors.
"We haven't even begun to see the impact" of the population growth, said Goren.
Nor is Federation alone in its outreach to the large number of Jews flocking to the Pacific Northwest. In the past year alone, regional offices have been opened in Seattle by the American Society for the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology; the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science; Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America; and the Reform Movement's Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
Local charity raffles are filled with Microsoft software. At Congregation Shaarei Tefilah, bidding for the honor of holding a sefer Torah on Simchas Torah is sometimes done in Microsoft stock rather than dollars. Microsoft employees also donate their time to helping local Jewish agencies to set up Web sites.
"There are few companies this big with such a high concentration of people who are friendly to us," said David , the YLD director, who visits the Redmond campus once a week. "There's tons of work. It's all potential. Some is realized, but there's a lot more giving to be
The MicroJews
By Brian Mono
LeVine and her husband, Eric, are not alone in their journey to Seattle. With more and more people accepting attractive job offers at Microsoft -- as well as at other major corporations based in and around Seattle, such as Boeing, Starbucks, Amazon.com and RealNetworks -- the estimated population of the Jewish community in this high-tech boom town has shot up over the past decade from 30,000 to more than 40,000.
"There are a lot of folks who are here and who are happy, but do not see themselves in a particular place in 20 years. [My husband and I] have a mortgage -- that's a big root," said LeVine, whose Microsoft department recently spun off and became its own company, Expedia.com, an online travel agency.
The Microsoft Mohel
A "snipless" circumcision set David Bolnick, the "Microsoft mohel," back on the path to Judaism.
Bolnick, 44, said he was at the height of his assimilation in the early 1980s when a couple of friends invited him to their
newborn son's brit milah, the religious ceremony marking the child's entry into the covenant between G-d and Abraham.
It is not surprising to learn that the first place many new Microsoft employees look to find community is online. Andy Seres arrived at the company as an intern five and a half years ago and signed on to the Jews at Microsoft ("JAMs") internal e-mail alias in order to meet Jewish co-workers.
No doubt, they are partially attracted by Microsoft's policy of matching employee gifts of cash, stock and software up to $12,000.
Brian Mono is a staff writer with the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. Let him know what you think by clicking here.
