World

Tech Star

Israeli whiz kid is behind Google's new searches.

Dan Goldberg
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Sydney, Australia

P

ressed to find a name for his
new technology enabling a more
accurate Internet search, Israel
native Ori Allon looked to Greek mythol-
ogy — and perhaps his own name.
Allon opted for Orion, the great hunter,
reasoning that his creation is a modern-
day hunter. He suggested, too, that perhaps
the contraction of his name is "maybe why
I liked it."
The new Orion allows Google users to
conduct "an expert search without having
an expert's knowledge!' The Australian uni-
versity where the 29-year-old Jerusalemite
developed the technology says it has "revo-
lutionized" the search engine.
Allon developed the complex algorithm

behind Orion in 2005 while doing research
for a doctorate at the University of New
South Wales in Sydney. Google bought the
exclusive rights the following year for an
undisclosed sum after a bidding war with
Yahoo! and Microsoft, and also hired Allon.
He has spent the past three years working
at Google headquarters in California.
Launched March 24, Orion offers two
major improvements to Google searches. A
Google search now produces results relat-
ed not just to the keywords but to other
keywords directly related to the topic. For
example, Allon says, a search for "Israel"
will return results that include Jerusalem,
the Six-Day War, Benjamin Netanyahu and
Ehud Olmert.
"We have mountains and mountains
of texts that correspond to Israel, and we
try to identify patterns, terms and enti-
ties that are closely related to Israel," he
explains.

Orion processes them
in milliseconds and
works out which are
the most important.
In addition, queries of
more than three words
now will display longer
descriptions, so users
don't have to visit sev-
eral Web sites before
finding the correct one.
Ori Allon
"We've improved the
snippets so you can
identify the right results before you click:'
Allon said.
Allon will return next month to Sydney,
which he calls "the greatest city in the
world," for his graduation ceremony. He'll
spend Passover in Israel with his family,
who he says are "pretty proud" of him,
even if "they don't fully understand the
whole thing."

After completing his army service in
2002, Allon left Israel for Australia. He
earned his bachelor's and master's degrees
at Monash University in Melbourne before
moving to Sydney for his doctorate.
"Every day there is someone like me
who becomes a celebrity for 24 hours and
then people forget about it," Allon said."It's
really important to stay fresh and be able to
address as many queries as possible." ❑

Scrambling

Global economic decline hits Jewish groups in FSU.

Grant Slater
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Moscow

C

laps and cheers rang through the
cavernous foyer of the Moscow
State University of Management
as two dozen students in a program for
Jewish community professionals stepped
up to receive their diplomas.
The cheers filled the small room, but
outside their echo faded in the school's
business wing — perhaps auguring the
daunting challenges these newly minted
MBAs face as they head out into a Russian
Jewish community caught in the global
economic crisis.
"Chances are you will have more cli-
ents needing help from your programs
at exactly the time when you have less
money to help them," warned Carol
Saivetz, a sponsor of the master's in busi-
ness administration program in which
the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC) partnered with
Moscow's leading management school,
with funds from the Fred and Rita
Richman Family Foundation.

A30

April 2 e 2009

Starting last August, the financial cri-
sis has permeated the organized Jewish
community in the former Soviet Union,
spreading at different rates in different
countries. Ukraine has been the hardest
hit in the region, with an inflating cur-
rency that has the country teetering on
collapse.
In recent months, the International
Fellowship for Christians and Jews has
stepped in to temporarily prop up chil-
dren's welfare operations across the for-
mer Soviet Union, especially in Ukraine.
But the funds will last only until the end
of the academic year in June.
The five or six major organizations
that funnel money into the region have
trimmed their budgets or shuttered
altogether. Charitable giving by those on
Forbes' 2009 list of the world's wealthi-
est people has dropped by two-thirds,
the magazine reported recently. The list
includes Russian Jewish mega-donors.
Tanya Krasiy, who coordinates welfare
programs for the JDC in Kiev, said the lists
of families seeking assistance has bal-
looned in recent months as government
workers have gone without salaries and
seniors have missed out on their pension

payments for three consecutive
months.
More than 2,000 children
have been added to the list of
7,000 at-risk families.
The crisis extends to orphan- Galina
ages in Ukraine, where demand Rybnikov a
has increased but the funds
have not risen to meet the demands,
Bleich said.
The most basic necessities — children's
welfare and support for the elderly — are
being kept afloat at all costs, but there has
been a restructuring of priorities among
other programs that do not directly relate
to welfare or money from the Claims
Conference, said Alik Nadan, director of
the JDC's Moscow office.
Until this month, Galina Rybnikova, one
of the students who received her MBA
last week in Moscow, ran a professional
development program in Dnepropetrovsk,
Ukraine, under the auspices and funding
of the JDC.
The program, the Institute for Social
and Community Workers, was shuttered
recently, and Rybnikova now works for a
private organization. She also manages the
Limmud educational conference program

in Ukraine on the side.
Despite the challenges, Rybnikova
says she is optimistic about her
future because of the management
skills she gained with her new
degree, which was subsidized 80
percent by the JDC.
In Russia, the crisis is not as acute
as Ukraine, but certain pillars of Jewish
life have been hit by losses of donors.
Hillel lost a significant portion of its
funding for the former Soviet Union when
the Chais Family Foundation shut its
doors after losing everything in Bernard
Madoff's investment scheme. Hillel has
worked to cover the gap with one of the
only funders to increase its allocations this
year, the Genesis Philanthropy Group.
The financial crisis has not yet trickled
down to two of the poorest countries in
Europe — Moldova and Belarus. Their
economies are largely isolated from the
global recession because of strong state
controls or lack of large financial institu-
tions.
That may be changing soon, however, as
the small Jewish communities there lose
even the modest amount of support they
had. 11

