Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated $1 million to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), the organization that played a critical role in helping his family escape anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and migrate to the States thirty years ago.
The New York Times ran an article and interview with Brin about the donation this weekend, revealing that Sergey’s mother, scientist Eugenia Brin, is also a Director of the organization.
In the interview, Sergey Brin notes that he and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, would like to engage “more substantially” in philanthropic endeavors, acknowledging that the $1 million donation is relatively small if you consider that fact that his personal wealth is now an estimated $16 billion according to the Times. So far, the Brin family has donated over $30 million to charity, particularly to organizations who are involved with Parkinson’s disease.
Notably, Brin cites Microsoft founder and Chairman Bill Gates as an example:
Mr. Brin noted that Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, was widely criticized for not giving away enough money but is now known as one of the world’s leading philanthropists. “While everyone was criticizing him, he was generating a whole lot more money for his foundation, and ultimately, when he got serious about philanthropy, he did it really well,” Mr. Brin said. “I’d like to learn from that example.”
In case you’re not familiar with the story of Brin growing up in the Soviet Union: Sergey was born in Moscow in 1973 and immigrated to the United States after moving to Paris, France for a couple of months at the age of six, when his parents found that the anti-Jew sentiments in their native country was blocking their professional careers. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society reportedly aided the Brins by helping them navigate the process of immigrating, helped them apply for visas and even supported them financially.
As the saying goes: what goes around, comes around.
HIAS CEO Gideon Aronoff said the gift will be used for increasing the organization’s use of technology, supporting advocacy on immigration policy, and more.
(Pic of Sergey Brin when he was only 8 years old courtesy of NY Times – also check out the video of his surprise appearance at the Web 2.0 Summit)
Cheap !!!
this is neither very interesting not very important. millions are being donated every day. did you ever read about bill gates’ donations here?
But above all this is a lets-write-an-article-attracting-hating-jews-and-other-ignorants-this-boring-sunday article by techcrunch; a recipe tried and true
so he basically donated to those who helped him become who he is now and without which he couldn’t create Google , right ?!
By your logic, he should also donate money to UMD and Stanford then…
I think Stanford made enough money off Google as it is
Is there anything wrong with that?
The organization did it without expecting a reward. Luckily, they were successful in helping people out.
Brin feels gratitude towards them, and helps them out too. Story seems good, and brings a smile to my face.
http://www.traderbots.com
How does your website add any insight to your reply or the story?
Yeah. So what?
1. Btw- only half the Jews left USSR and the other half stayed.
2. Israel had good ties with USSR and USSR was in favor of Israel as independent state, until Israel strengthened its ties with the West.
3. Most forget that in WW2 Jews were welcome to USSR when they fled Poland and other countries from the German army. They were given FREE apartments, passport, jobs and taken in by USSR without neglect.
4. USSR propaganda was targeted towards Zionism, not Jews.
5. In order for Jews to leave any country they would have to CLAIM Anti-Semitism in the first place.
Thanks,
Why does it seem that every country is labeled as “anti-semetic” at some point in time. Look into Zionism if you want a peek into the minds of some truly nasty people.
Jews control more wealth and power than any other group in the world. Time to stop playing the victim.
Indian Envy?
“3. Most forget that in WW2 Jews were welcome to USSR when they fled Poland and other countries from the German army. They were given FREE apartments, passport, jobs and taken in by USSR without neglect.”
Tell that to the millions of Jews including my grandparent who were sent to Siberia and forced into hard labor, were hundreds of thousand, died of disease and starvation.
“4. USSR propaganda was targeted towards Zionism, not Jews.”
Under Communist Russia practicing religion was a crime against the State. There was allot more than propoganda targeting those who practiced religion, including the death penalty.
This is the typical we don’t hate judaism only zionism mask – that haters like you, like to wear.
Josh,
Do tell the difference between judaism and zionism.
Zionism teaches hate for gentiles and promotes the idea that non-jews are lesser people. While not all Jews are Zionists, all Zionists are Jews.
“Tell that to the millions of Jews including my grandparent who were sent to Siberia and forced into hard labor, were hundreds of thousand, died of disease and starvation”
This is really something new for me. As far as I know communist usually send people to Siberia regardless of nationality. Only during and after WW2 communist sent Chechens, Kalmyks, Crimean Tatars and some other to Siberia and Kazahstan, but I have never heard about “millions of Jews” send to Siberia. Could you elaborate a little bit more?
that’s right stalin didn’t prejudice against judaism. If anything he went after Catholics and other Christians even stronger. And lets not forget, many of the top Bolsheviks were all jews, including many of the Stalin’s closest people.
As for “Anti-Semitic”, USSR if it’s so anti-Semitic, why is that all the oligarch who run the country now are all jews ???
1. Over 2 million Jews left Russia, while there are about half a million there today.
2. The USSR initially thought that Israel would be a communist state and extended support, which it quickly withdrew.
3. The USSR actively censored massacres of Jews during WWII.
4. As mentioned by Josh, religion was a crime in the USSR.
5. Since you seemed to emphasized the word “claim,” I urge you to research the countless state-sponsored pogroms and massacres of Jews in Russia, specifically 1820s+.
I Think He Should Donate To Me Because I Worked 4 Google, However The Didn’t Have A Position That Fit My Quals, So I Took A Entry Level Position, Eventually Ended Up Leaving!! Can I Get Some Pain N Suffering
. Just Kidding !!Google Is Great & They Give A Lot More Than The Media Knows, Take It From A Once Insider~ Now If I Can Get On Their Supply List To Provide Them My Coffee I’ll Be Set~ Not To Mention Maybe Get My Old Entry Level Job Back As A DTA ~
I hope to god nobody would employ you with that god awful typing style.
Oh god, my eyes.
…that typing dude, it sucks. Hope they give you a data entry job at google
This seems basically a copy of the NYTimes piece. If you are going to have your own story, better to actually have something unique in the text, other than merely copying most of the NYTimes piece.
most of this info is in wikipedia already — nothing new under techcrunch
Except for the fact that you have to register to view the NYT article….so F that
If USSR was so bad for the Jews how come most have advanced degrees to begin with. Persecuted minorities do not become Doctors and Scientists.
It is true they need to say that to get a visa, but they can drop the charade once they are here.
They can’t – its politics.
Oh, don’t even start this discussion about something you obviously have no personal experience with.
In late USSR “doctors of science” “engineers” were pretty un-prestigious low-salary professions comparing to dentists, “zavedushi skladom” and certainly “sekretar obkoma KPSS”
You’re an expert in the Soviet job classification!
He didn’t have to give anything. I bet they were happy to recieve it.
can someone please stop this chick above BECKY GRANT for spamming techcrunch with porn
it’s always great to see people who have made it, give back to the places where they once received help them needed.
Well done boys.
although I don’t understand why hebrew immigrants should benefit more than other ethnicities …
Because it’s a *private* organization created by other Hebrews to help their own. If you don’t like it, feel free to start one that help whomever you’d like. I mean why does NAACP only help advance “colored” people?
Shame.
1 mil out of 16 billion is 0.006% of his wealth.
http://www.goog...p;q=100%2F16000
That is like donating $625 for somebody has 100k in the bank.
0.00625 * 100 000 = 625
So because I only have $100 I am doing the same as him by donating $0.65? His overall wealth means nothing, the value of the donation matters.
Remind me to never hire you because you obviously suck at math. Did you just remove the % sign without dividing by 100? The right answer is it’d be like donating $6.25
hi, you are right. one of those mistakes due to sleeplessness.
That actually makes the case even stronger that what he donated is nothing compared to how much he has got.
guys, this is an institution with a very specific purpose. they are not going to feed the world or cure cancer. 1mil is a very large amount for the purposes stated
Screw you dude. Like rich people automatically owe the world something? He’s giving away money he earned fair and square out of the goodness of his heart. What have you done lately?
Velioncho and ee,
So by that rationale someone who would actually donate $625 is also cheap? He donated $1 MILLION, if he created a personal value of billions more props to him, fact is that he donated a million, how much did you guys donate? boneheads
Again, I’d like to point out that the proper number is $6.25, not $625.
Thoughts on the hias.org site?
For the longest time I did not know Sergey was Jewish.
So is Larry Page
“to escape anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and migrate to the States thirty years ago. ”
Mr. Williams, Jews in USSR were lucky people because they had legitimate way to emigrate from the country where 97% of population have never been to abroad.
Anti-Semitism in Soviet Union is Jewish propaganda.
Sure
Have you lived in Soviet Union being a Jew?
Have you ever tried to apply to the “MechMat” Faculty of the Moscow State University being a Jew?
Have you ever been insulted on street “Gid” just because you look slightly different from people around? Do you know how is it to be Jew in Sovet Union?
Boris… Wow..Sounds a lot like Mexicans, Chinese and Indians in the US.
Sounds a lot like apples and squash
What is the connection between Mexicans and Chinese? These two are very different minorities and they do not posses many shared features.
…and arabs. all “ethnic” groups and minorities share an awareness of the challenges surrounding them, short term and long term.
we should all respect each other and regardless of background, cheer/cherish people like brin who *are* taking responsibility and putting a spotlight on the positive impact immigrants and minorities can have in a meritocracy (in this case U.S., but it could easily have been other places) if given the chance/opportunity and if they have what it takes.
Yes, but Chinese and Indians have no problems getting into University and going on to advanced degrees just due to their ethnicity. My parents had to jump through all kinds of obstacles just to get educated.
Boris, I have many friends (Jews) who have graduated from MSU and Phyztech in late 80s early 90s. BTW, all of them have successfully emigrated to Israel, Canada and US. The reason why somebody has not been accepted to Moscow State is not because he was a Jew but because he did not qualify.
Certainly, there are many Jews graduated Phyztech since phyztech did not have any anti-semitic policy due to high demand for brights brains by Russian military But MSU is totally different story
Why do you say all these lies so easily verifiable
“late 80s early 90s” don’t count, this is when perestroika is started and government policy toward jews at that time was different than in 60s-80s. Just as a one example from many others I heard, friend of mine failed on Phyztech in 1974, he got 5 (highest score) in written exam and 2 (applicant’s application is automatically discarded) in conversational exam at physics and he was actually Phyztech physics olympiad champion. It was standard practice, in written exam if all problems are solved correctly, it is not possible to give low grade, while conversational exam is not possible to prove anything and was given score 2.
Awww. Sergey was cute.
was?
No matter the amount given, it is the meaning behind it. Giving is part of your success
It is always encouraging to see successful people give back to the society.
lots of short-sighted comments here. don’t u think that Sergey would know the amount he donated would be noticed by everyone around the world?
i bet he chose an amount to signify his future intentions and draw attention to this organization and philanthropy in general. He could have donated $10 million or even $50 million and people would call him a bigger “hero”. Obviously he’s not looking for that.
I think it’s just the start of something big.
Philanthrocapitalism at its best.
There are so many posters here who have absolutely no idea about the insane amount of antisemitism in Russia. Truuuust me – it was there. It’s still there.
Jews emigrating from Russia were refugees (I had refugee status in ‘91), because the gov’t treated them worse than dog-shit.
It’s not a “claim” there is documented evidence of persecution of Jews during that time. Read up about “refuseniks”.
Jews, Zionists, etc all make mistakes. We all do. But that doesn’t change the fact that Jews were (and are) very victimized in Russia and across Europe. Saying they weren’t is not a strong anti-Jewish argument, because it either shows ignorance, or an attempt to cover up the documented truth.
Cheers!
Good for you Boris that you were able to escape USSR in 1991. Unfortunately almost everyone has been treated as “dog-shit” during that time in Russia. They left to struggle in USSR.
Ivan, unless you were a Jew in the Soviet Union, you did not know the peculiar flavor of dog-shit that we experienced. Makes the rest of the dog-shit seem like candy in comparison.
Those with a dominantly altruist mindset will sneer at this donation. I consider the donation to be admirable. He is helping to support an organization that had a profound personal influence to his life, and there is no better reason.
Jewish communities worldwide have succeeded in spite of racism. Who can deny this simple fact?
Boris and Artem,
Don’t get all worked up about it. Someone who’s been spoon-fed the good life from their day of birth can’t possibly fathom what it was like to be a Jew in the USSR.
They don’t know what it was like to be afraid of someone reporting you to the authorities, to keep your mouth shut about anything said at home for fear of endangering your family, or to get a beaten up by the neighborhood thugs.
They can’t understand why we always had to be the best in order to get the same opportunities that others got for being average. That is why so many Russian Jews are doctors of science and engineers.
So don’t bother them with facts. They have no clue what we went through and never will.
BTW, if anyone would like to get a glimpse of what it was like to be a Jew in USSR, watch Refusenik- http://refusenikmovie.com/. I have found the story to be quite authentic.
If it’s in a movie it’s gotta be true!
“They don’t know what it was like to be afraid of someone reporting you to the authorities, to keep your mouth shut about anything said at home for fear of endangering your family, or to get a beaten up by the neighborhood thug”
This is a great description of average Soviet citizen, but how is it related to discrimination by nationality or religion?
$1 million is a drop in the ocean for Sergey Brin.
$! million is a lot for most of people,
It really makes sense, that is it.
this might be more insightful
http://pakalert...e-worlds-media/
TC also another propaganda piece of zionists
As someone who grew up in the Soviet Bloc… you couldn’t practice ANY religion! If jews were targeted it was because they were religious very openly
My grandmother went to church on occasion and we celebrated Easter but she didn’t shout how christian she was
To get sent to a camp one had to be considered a threat to the state – ie be anything other than a communist party member, want to immigrate, be criminal, work to undermine the party etc
by the way my grandmother also laid on the tracks to keep a train full of jews from leaving as they were being sent to a Nazi camp as did a neighbor’s grandmother.
neither was arrested, they actually caused the gov’t to change their mind and stop the train from leaving!
BTW, the other google guy – Page – is also Jewish
Will the Jews ever stop pitying themselves. Move on. You guys weren’t and aren’t the only ones who have been or are prosecuted in the world. Stop feeling so sorry for yourselves
Who’s feeling sorry? Brin his helping those that helped him. This is about empowerment, not pity.
who is talking about brin. i am talking about all the self-pitying losers posting here
$1 million in the news? Robin seems out of topics.
And by extension, the NYT.
Nice gesture, no doubt
For people speaking about jew in the last 50 years.
What about arabic in Israel ?
Have you ever tried to live there ?
Do you know that Gaza is the most crowded place in the world ? (guess why…)
Go to Israel, show yourself as an arabic and if you won’t get killed in one week then you are lucky man !
More people should donate to good causes. Also never forget where you came from.
WOW! This is like me dropping a dollar in the 7-11 Boys and Girls Club donation jar.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Robin,
How much do you really know about the soviet system and and their action against all religion practices? I guess not much. Why not stick with the 1 million donation and not talk about anything that you know zero information about instead of disseminating the same false propaganda that was given to you.
Isn’t $1million to SB like a dime to the rest of us?