Chabad Follower Ascends to Leadership in Microsoft: Meet the Rabbi Taking on a Major Role in the Tech Giant

Rabbi Yitzhak Kasselman, 42, a Chabad follower and the highest-ranking Haredi engineer at the tech giant Microsoft, has been promoted to Corporate Vice President (CVP) in the company. He recently completed his rabbinic studies and will now head the company's data analysis division, responsible for developing the Fabric product. "I am very honored to step into this new role as Corporate Vice President for real-time messaging and data analysis," Kasselman wrote this week.

Kasselman manages a division employing about 400 workers spread around the world, a significant number of whom work at the Microsoft building in Herzliya. The division was established about two years ago, and Kasselman took on the role then, although he disclosed it only recently.

Kasselman, married and a father of five, was among the first Haredi employees at Microsoft's development center in Israel. Born in Riga, Latvia, to a secular family, he immigrated to Israel at the age of 6 with his parents, both holding academic degrees, and was raised in Ramla in a mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood. He began his rabbinic studies in 2023 and completed them recently, alongside his thriving technological career. In the past, he shared, "In the mornings, I studied differential and integral calculus and data structures in the academic reserve, and in the evenings, I studied Tractate Berakhot and Chassidut in the yeshiva." Kasselman emphasizes that he does not see a contradiction between his work and his faith, believing that technology can assist the world and contribute to its improvement.