Google's Brin: Anti-Semitism forced my family out of Russia

Google co-founder Sergey Brin says that anti-Semitism forced his family to emigrate to the United States in 1979 when he was a child.

Sergey Brin

(Credit: Google)

In an interview with the Israeli financial publication, TheMarker.com, Brin described the job discrimination which both his parents encountered in the Soviet academic field. (Here's the full interview in Hebrew, and part of it in English.)

Brin was in Israel to visit the local Google office, as well as to take part in a conference organized by Israel's president, Shimon Peres. The following are excerpts from the interview:

• Without a doubt the great suffering put on my parents in Russia because of anti-Semitism was the primary reason that they left Russia. And that has had a major influence on my life.

• My family had many challenges in Russia. My father wasn't able to work in his chosen field. Everything we had in Russia, we had to leave behind and start from scratch. This gave me a different perspective on life.

• You know, we learned to make do without anything. To live on nothing. And this certainly influenced me.

• When you're a Jew, you have a background of hardship, suffering, difficulties--and to turn that into success is part of the Jewish experience.

Brin was born in Moscow in 1973. His father, Mikhail, was prevented from realizing his ambition to become an astronomer because the Communist Party, which then was in power, prevented Jews from entering the physics department. Brin's father subsequently worked as an economic planner after receiving his Ph.D. Brin's mother, Evgenya, was employed as a researcher by the Soviet gas and oil institute.

[michaelo1966]

Sergey -- You've been an inspiration for me but with this you (and your dad) will be a a role model for my eleven year-old son, an aspiring quantum physicist. Thanks for talking about what has to be a tough experience.

[t8]

Russia's loss then. Brin has contributed a lot to the USA.
Prejudice is a curse.

[Reza_Sadj]

Russia's loss, our gain. Best wishes for continued success!

[AppleSuxLeo]

If he could play hockey , I would admire him. You know , like Alex Ovechkin.

[KotDaVinci]

It may take only one interview to lose respect of the entire nation, Russia it is. When his parents had to play the anti-Semitism card to get out of the Soviet Union that was understandable, everybody who could did and there was no other way; but when their son being in the spot of world?s media repeats his father?s tales ? that?s just shameful. For his father it is. Sergey is going to have to realize that some family tales are to be kept in family or you?ll be suffering the sobering consequences that reality check brings.

[skyyz]

i don't see how sergey's honesty and openness is shameful or will result in 'sobering consequences'

[mlammey]

struggling is the poor mans strength.

[nick8080]

Check this list, it is jews in soviet science.
http://www.usfamily.net/web/joseph/vyd_deyat_sov_nauki_evrei.htm (russian)

[skyyz]

learning how to live on nothing is a surprisingly useful tool for learning to be at home in the stratosphere

[josephfriedman]

Yes, indeed it reminds us of Soviet Russia's intolerance of dissent, not to mention its over anti-semitism and Stalin's attempted genocide of Russian Jewry.

But as always, the Jew persevered and prospered despite the inhuman conditions of their home country -- and moved to greener pastures -- i.e. the U.S.A. -- where they were more welcomed.