Gilad Japhet

During his university studies, Japhet worked full-time at BRM Technologies as head of the computer virus analysis team (the product was later sold to Norton). His manager at BRM was Nir Barkat, who was later elected mayor of Jerusalem. Japhet's work included analyzing computer viruses and creating algorithms for their detection and removal. Japhet was a member of CARO – an organization of anti-virus experts. Among his inventions was a new virus detection and classification system based on the similarity of code segments which significantly reduced the development time needed to detect and remove new viruses. In 1996–2000, Japhet worked for BackWeb Technologies, an intra-organizational communications technology company. As product manager, he moved to Silicon Valley and contributed to the company's IPO on NASDAQ. At that point, Japhet took a six-month career break to research his family history, traveling around the world to interview relatives. He then worked for Spearhead Technologies and Picatel Systems in product management positions, during 2001–2002.

Family reunification

In 2016, Japhet established a DNA database to contribute to the reunification of Yemenite, North African, and other families that were split up under mysterious circumstances in the early days of the state, an episode known as Yemenite Children Affair. The initiative was launched in cooperation with the Knesset Lobby on Yemenite Children headed by MK Nurit Koren.

Restitution of looted property

In 2013–2014, Japhet initiated and implemented a pro bono project for the restitution of Holocaust victims' property in East Germany after a reporter for an online newspaper, Ofer Aderet, revealed that there was a deadline for applying for compensation for assets stolen by the Nazis, and descendants would not be able to file claims after a certain date. That same day, Japhet conducted genealogical research in which he managed to locate the great-granddaughter of one of the victims on the list. The woman, who lives in Brazil, was informed of her right to claim the property. With the help of this project, many descendants of Jews murdered in the Holocaust were able to appeal to receive restitution for their property.

Doreen Carvajal, a reporter for The New York Times in Paris, heard about this work and invited Japhet to cooperate with her in locating heirs, mostly Holocaust victims, whose artworks were stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Carvajal sent Japhet the names of four Jews listed in the MNR (National Museums Restitution) database of stolen art compiled by Rose Valland. Through Japhet's genealogical research, the heirs of all four were located. She published a story about it in the New York Times that caused a stir and encouraged the French authorities to invest greater effort in locating heirs.

Digitizing cemeteries

In 2014, Japhet initiated a national project to photograph all the graves in the State of Israel, transcribe the information on the tombstones, and publish photographs of the graves, to make them accessible to the public free of charge. As part of this project, Japhet recruited a team of 120 volunteers, half of them MyHeritage employees, to photograph the gravestones in Holon Cemetery, Israel's largest burial grounds, for genealogical documentation. Within a few hours, pictures were taken of 150,000 gravestones, two-thirds of the total. In the pilot for the project, 75,000 graves were photographed at Segula, a smaller cemetery in Petah Tikva.