Together Again: MyHeritage Expands its Headquarters With New Office Wing

At MyHeritage, we’re always looking forward to the future, anticipating the needs of our users and our ever-growing team. We’re excited to share that we’ve just opened a brand-new wing as an expansion of our headquarters, located in Or Yehuda, Israel. This expansion, totaling 774 square meters, allows all of our teams to work together under one roof, increasing creativity, collaboration, and innovation.

The global pandemic forced many companies to transition to remote work for an extended period, and MyHeritage was no exception. As the COVID lockdowns wound down in 2021, MyHeritage’s employees began to return to the office a few days per week, with different departments coming in on alternating days. At first, this was to limit the number of employees occupying the same area so we could adhere to social distancing guidelines. However, MyHeritage has grown since the pre-pandemic era, and when social distancing was no longer required, we found that the existing space was no longer sufficient to house all of our teams concurrently.

With the opening of the new wing, every team based in our headquarters can now work in the office simultaneously. Now, we can enjoy all the benefits of the hybrid work model alongside interdepartmental collaboration and renewed sense of community made possible by being together in person. 

MyHeritage’s New Wing Time-Lapse

For those who love to see how things come together, we’ve captured the entire building process of our new office wing in a fascinating time-lapse video. From the initial ground-breaking to the final touches, you can watch the transformation unfold from start to finish in this video:

Grand opening

We recently marked the occasion of the inauguration of our new office wing with a ceremonial ribbon cutting. Our Founder and CEO, Gilad Japhet, shared heartfelt remarks and fulfilled a lifelong aspiration by using magnificent golden scissors for the dedication.

Ran Michnowski and Katerina Breitman, who supervised the office expansion project, and MyHeritage Founder and CEO Gilad Japhet, join forces to cut the ceremonial ribbon

The new wing, an expansion of the existing MyHeritage headquarters, was beautifully designed with a lot of thought and consideration for the needs and comforts of our team. Once more, we returned to the talented team of Auerbach-Halevy Architects for the design. They are those who designed our beautiful offices which you can see in this prior blog post from 2016.

The new office wing includes offices for our research and development team, a kitchen area, a communal long table designed for lunchtime gatherings, and a variety of meeting spaces to accommodate all kinds of collaborative needs.

This family tree was contributed to the office by our CEO Gilad, who is an avid genealogist and lover of history. It is a very rare original family tree, featuring the noble families of Modena, Italy, hand-painted in watercolor on paper applied on canvas, dating back to 1760.

The MyHeritage Team is already enjoying the new space: 

Heartfelt thanks

The successful launch of our new office wing could not have been possible without the tireless efforts of Katerina Breitman, Global Operations Manager; Dani Pavlovsky, Facility Manager; Adir Magal, Operations Manager; Ran Michnowski, VP Operations; the construction crew; and the IT department. Their dedication and hard work ensured that every detail was perfect, from the aesthetics of the workspace to the seamless integration of technology, making the transition smooth for everyone. Thank you to everyone who played a part in making this dream a reality. 

Looking ahead

As we settle into our new space, the MyHeritage team will continue to work together to innovate, create, and serve our users better than ever before. Here’s to many more years of success and innovation together!