Anti-Semitism Pushed Google Guru's Family From Russia

Anti-Semitism pushed Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s family to leave Russia, he told an Israeli website. “The great suffering put on my parents in Russia because of anti-Semitism was the primary reason that they left. And that has had a major influence on my life,” Brin told TheMarker.com, CNET reports. His family emigrated to the US when he was a child in 1979.

Brin’s father couldn’t pursue his goal of being an astronomer because the Communist party banned Jews from physics departments. “Everything we had in Russia, we had to leave behind and start from scratch. This gave me a different perspective,” he said. “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.”