WHAT was one factor that made Tel Aviv the second most innovative tech hub in the world after the Bay Area? Easy. The Soviet Union (Russia and the Eastern European vassal states) pogroms that sent the best STEM talent fleeing. The talented sons and daughters of the emigrés helped Tel Aviv develop the algorithms and the technical applications that have enhanced the way people live. Pioneering technologies that have benefited societies across the globe, such as Waze, the easy-to-use driving aid, came out of the Tel Aviv tech scene. The level of tech talent in Tel Aviv and the incubation and development hubs are rated as world-class and are fast catching up with the innovation and R&D pace at Silicon Valley.

What pushed the math professor-father of Sergey Brin of the famous Google duo to leave Russia and resettle in the US? Partly to find professional fulfillment and probably to give the young Sergey the most ideal environment to nurture his talent. There is no question the math professor made an important decision — that actually is an understatement — based on what his son helped develop, the giant search engine Google — as a doctoral student at Stanford.