Wanted by the Jewish movement: high-tech professionals, employed or otherwise. No past Jewish involvement necessary.
That’s the recruitment target for a nationwide drive launched by the United Jewish Communities and the Jewish Federations of North America to pull an often elusive and busy sector of people into the world of Jewish causes and philanthropy.
With the economy in the doldrums and high technology particularly hard hit by layoffs, is the effort doomed by bad timing?
Not at all, say organizers of the so-called “Blue Knot” initiative.
Inspired by a 400-member South Bay group, which started more than a decade ago, promoters have high hopes for their plans to attract a traditionally hard-to-reach sector of the Jewish community.
“We believe it’s a great time to start this type of initiative,” said Blue Knot board member Dan Rubin, an early member of the local Jewish High-Tech Community. After all, he noted, “This is the time when a lot of high-tech people have a few more hours on their hands.”
The initiative would set up a network of organizations where Jews who work in technology can share expertise, hear regular speakers and attend career development programs, view online “job wanted” and “job placement” boards and develop new friendships.
It’s also a program that will introduce members to Jewish communities and their philanthropic needs.
When the economy turns around, Blue Knot backers hope those professionals will remember the needs of nonprofits, and donate their talents and money.
“This is prospecting, if you will,” explains Joel Tauber, chairman of Blue Knot and past chairman of the UJC executive committee. “We’re more interested in getting the people, getting them involved, getting their skills.”
Betty Fellows, an unemployed software support specialist from Redwood City who started a support group for job seekers at Palo Alto’s Congregation Kol Emeth, welcomed the idea of the new outreach project.
“It’s all about knowing somebody,” said Fellows, whose group has a mailing list of 340. “Share those leads, share those connections.”
Still, Fellows, who has been looking for work since June 2001, says the outlook remains discouraging. Some participants have found jobs only to return to the meetings after being laid off a second time.
“We keep hearing that things are going to turn around, but we’re not seeing it yet,” she said.
Neal Greenberg, president of the Jewish High-Tech Community, also welcomed the idea of Blue Knot.
His group, which is funded by federations in San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, holds monthly meetings with guest speakers and operates an online forum where members can swap information on everything from upcoming hikes to job listings.
Expanding that forum nationally would be a boon for job seekers interested in relocating, said Greenberg, vice president of a Fremont manufacturing and engineering services’ firm.
“Now is an opportunity to help as many people as you can, and then to make sure they remember when we’re all flying in the stock market and the economy is booming.”
But for now, Greenberg cautioned, asking people locally for money is “very, very difficult.”
Jewish high-tech groups already have formed in about a dozen American communities besides the Bay Area. But overall, leaders admit that the dot-com era wasn’t a particularly lucrative time to attract those professionals to Jewish causes.
Planning for Blue Knot, according to Tauber, began several years ago at the suggestion of Jon Friedenberg, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose.
“The fact that the financial markets have declined significantly doesn’t mean we don’t want to reach out to people in this industry,” said Friedenberg.
He said the Blue Knot program would provide immediate assistance to these workers professionally while helping “to strengthen the association between members of the group and their local federation.”
Blue Knot will officially launch its campaign at a huge COMDEX technology convention starting Nov. 16 in Las Vegas.
“The thought was, we had a self-selected group of entrepreneurial leaders who were very creative and innovative. Just the kind of characteristics we needed in the Jewish community,” explained Tauber in a phone interview. “They also happened to be a group so busy doing their own thing, that they didn’t have time to get involved in the Jewish community.”
Rubin, now a Peninsula-based venture capitalist, can personally attest to the benefits of networking with fellow Jewish professionals — and the loyalty it generates.
Rubin joined the Jewish High-Tech Community in 1990, shortly before he co-founded a Silicon Valley start-up company. He credits his associations at the Jewish group with helping to make that business a success. “It was a really easy environment to ask people for help and advice,” he said. “I met people who steered us to key customers.”
When he first joined the high-tech group, “I didn’t know what the federation was. I called and asked my Dad.” But he’s since become educated and committed on the subject.
These days, the 42-year-old Rubin said, “my biggest single annual gift is to the federation.”
Noting that he had joined the local high-tech organization at a previous time when the economy was sputtering, Rubin said, “This is the time when the people need the help and need the support both individually and for their companies. It is a time when the federations can be viewed as phenomenally foresighted and helpful.”