About the Jewish High Tech Community
Mission
JHTC's mission is connecting the Jewish High Tech Community and its friends together to enhance our opportunities for education and giving back to the community.
We incorporated at the end of 2008 and were granted 501(c)3 status in July so annual memberships, sponsorships and other donations are tax deductible.
We meet monthly, currently the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30 p.m. at the Fenwick & West Silicon Valley Conference Center in Mountain View.
Leadership
Should your name be on this list?
Advisors
- Maury Schapira
- Martin Griss
History
The Jewish High Tech Community has a history going back to the 1980s and flourished in the run up to and during the dotcom explosion. Founded in 1989 by Harry Saal and Joe Seidler, in cooperation with Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley in order to build a sense of community among the many Jewish people working in Silicon Valley, and many friendships and business relationships were established, creating a real sense of community among Jewish techies.
Joe served as the first president, followed by Sam Gill, Steve Benjamin, Dan Rubin, Lloyd Dickman and Neal Greenberg. Many other individuals were active and crucial to the early success of JHTC, including Jerry Brenholz, Fred Stein, Harry Saal, Alan Bennett, Dick Sirinsky, Reba Cohen, Arlyne Diamond and Ken Toren (representing Federation).
After the crash, though, people weren't able to be so free with donations and so the group pulled back a bit. The dinner portion was eliminated, along with the $35 fee, and meetings were cut back to every other month. Additionally, JHTC cut the formal ties to the Federation. Neal Greenberg put in a huge personal effort to keep our group going, arranging wonderful speakers six times a year.
Meeting space was generously provided by Congregation Kol Emeth and Fenwick and West.
Confusion caused a hiatus during 2005 through the early part of 2006.
JHTC relaunched in March, 2006, under the leadership of Bill Lazar when Shelley Hebert, Executive Director of the Campus for Jewish Life, made an impressive presentation on this amazing community project to a small group at Kol Emeth. Fenwick & West partner Barry Kramer graciously used one of his partner sponsorships to again make the terrific Silicon Valley Conference Center available to us again beginning with the May meeting.
Note: JHTC meetings are open to people of all faiths with no explicitly religious program components.
Vision
The JHTC aims to improve the quality of life in the Silicon Valley for Jewish people working in and around technology and for the Jewish and South Bay communities more generally by educating them about important trends and issues in technology. Longer term, our goal is to develop charitable and professional development programs.
JHTC Founders gather in 2002
Prominent Guest Speakers
- Kamran Elahian, co-founder of more than half-a-dozen highly successful companies, including CAE Systems, Cirrus Logic Inc., NeoMagic Corporation and Centillium Communications, as well as one spectacular failure, Momenta
- Eric Benahmou, chairman of 3Com, Benahmou Global Partners and the Israel Venture Network
- Pete Slossberg, founder of Pete's Wicked Ale and Coco Pete's Chocolate Adventures
- Reid Hoffman, co-founder, LinkedIn
- Ben Shelef, Spaceward Foundation
- Donna Dubinsky, co-founder, Palm Computing and Handspring
- Guy Kawasaki, Tech Evangelist extraordinaire
- Dan'l Lewin, Microsoft
- Steve Poizner, tech entrepreneur and now California Insurance Commissioner
