Three days ago, on the occasion of his family’s 30th year of immigration from Russia to the United States because of Jewish persecution in that country, Sergey Brin donated $1,000,000 to the society, widely known as HIAS, which helped his family escape Antisemitism in the Soviet Union and establish themselves in their new country.
“I would have never had the kinds of opportunities I’ve had here in the Soviet Union, or even in Russia today,” Mr. Brin said in an interview. “I would like to see anyone be able to achieve their dreams, and that’s what this organization does.”
The gift is small, given Mr. Brin’s estimated $16 billion in personal wealth, but he said it signaled a growing commitment by him and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, to engage more substantially in philanthropy.
While the act in itself seemed to be just an expression of gratitude on Sergey’s part, readers of the TechCrunch blog, a site that did quoted an original NY Times report of the event, quickly filled the comment box with minor heated arguments on the issues of Zionism and antisemitism…
While searching for a picture of Sergey on Creative Commons where BN2012 usually get free licensed photos for blog use, I found this web blog entry about the Brin couple donating another $500,000 to Creative Commons itself.
(Via TechCruch)
