‘What am I doing here?’ The leap from cybersecurity to global Jewish community
As I glanced around a room of 25 C-suite leaders ahead of delivering a briefing on antisemitism, I thought, “What am I doing here?!”In my head, I was still the cybersecurity professional, the IT guy. I had no business speaking about Jewish lived experience in the workplace. And yet, in that moment, I realized I was standing in a gap that needed to be filled.Looking back over the past three years, the story sounds almost like a movie: A successful cybersecurity professional leaves his career in search of greater meaning, building a global Jewish workplace community.In fact, if you’d told me as I lay in bed on Oct. 7, 2023, awoken by the sound of distant interceptions by the Iron Dome missile-defense system, that I’d be writing about my career pivot, I imagine I would have laughed so hard that I’d be admitted for hysteria.Yet here I am. No longer…
Steven Phillips, a former cybersecurity professional, transitioned his career to build a global Jewish workplace community called "JewishERGs." His journey began in 2019 by forming a small Jewish social group at Amazon, which evolved into a grassroots Employee Resource Group (ERG) after realizing Jews were omitted from diversity training. Despite initial resistance, the community grew to over 1,500 Jewish employees globally.
"What am I doing here?!"
Phillips left Amazon in July 2023, and the October 7th attacks accelerated his commitment, leading him to fully dedicate himself to this work in March 2024 after a volunteer mission to Israel. JewishERGs now supports over 500 members in more than 230 workplaces across eight countries, providing resources, programming, and guidance. Phillips states, "At its core, this work is actually not about overtly fighting antisemitism. It’s about empowering Jews to bring Jewish joy to work in order to counteract the hate."
© All rights to the original article belong to the source. Din Online shows a headline, an excerpt and a link only. The objectivity rating is computed automatically and is an estimate only.
Discussion
No comments yet — be the first to comment.