The hackathon "Spark for Generations" (Photo: Private)
Why not connect the high-tech industry to the issue of the Holocaust and the challenges of Holocaust survivors?
The entrepreneur Natan Leibzon wrestled with this question together with his friend, Erez Gabish.
In the end, the hackathon, "Spark for Generations", was born from this, which recently, at the end of a two-year hiatus due to the corona virus, took place for the third time with the participation of about 120 people.
"We plan to continue doing the hackathons in the coming years as well, so that the memory of the Holocaust will be preserved for future generations," says Leibzon.
This coming Tuesday we will celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day and Heroism.
"So many people are connected to the subject of the Holocaust, and as soon as they are given the opportunity to create something from their most personal place, they put their soul into it," says Leibzon, who also has a personal touch on the subject.
"My maternal grandmother, the late Pira, was a Holocaust survivor.
She and her whole family were in the ghetto in Ukraine.
Her mother was in an extermination camp and managed to escape.
My grandfather and his family were on the run from the Nazis," he says. "We lived with my grandmother, she raised me and had a profound influence on me.
Holocaust stories were always in the background.
When I organize the hackathons, I feel that my grandmother is here with me."
When they started in 2018 with the first hackathon, they were four entrepreneurs: Leibzon, Gabish, Alon Rappaport and Anat Grimland. "Today we are already eight people and over 20 entities partner with us, including associations, institutions Academics and technology companies, including Microsoft for Startups, AppsFlyer, ironSource Ernst & Young, the College for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem, the Claims Conference, the Israel-Eshel joint, and more," says Leibzon.
"The focus of the hackathon is technological, but sometimes interesting solutions don't have to be the pinnacle of technology. The hackathon participants worked to create solutions to the multitude of challenges, problems and difficulties that exist regarding the day-to-day challenges of the survivors and in matters of education and commemoration. We understand that our time is running out. The survivors of the Holocaust are dwindling, And we have a few years left to take their knowledge and memory and preserve it for future generations. The goal is to do everything we can to preserve the stories and history for the day when there are no more Holocaust survivors in the world."
Tell us about some ideas that were concocted there.
"Third place went to guys from the association 'For their sake - female and male doctors for Holocaust survivors', who created an application that interfaces with their database and knows how to match Holocaust survivors who now need a doctor with the doctor they need at a time and place that is convenient for them. The second place was won by a group called 'Face' Their project is based on artificial intelligence and is intended, on the one hand, to alleviate the loneliness of Holocaust survivors by corresponding with them, and on the other hand, to compare the stories of survivors, and if, for example, the system finds Holocaust survivors from the same town in Poland, it will be able to connect them. While first place was won by a group called Savee, which created a platform aimed Fight Holocaust denial on the Internet."
What happened to ideas that came up in the previous hackathons?
"There are those who have moved forward with their ideas, including some who are still operating today. On the other hand, there are also ventures that were closed after one year of operation, because of the corona virus or because of budgets. Unfortunately, among investors there is no enthusiasm to invest in ventures of this type because in the end they are ventures social. Only social funds will invest in a social enterprise, of which there are very few."
Natan Leibzon, entrepreneur (Photo: Victor Levy)
Holocaust in virtual reality
One of the ventures that did manage to survive is Never Again VR - perpetuating the stories of Holocaust survivors in an augmented/virtual reality platform.
"The subject of the Holocaust is very close to me," says Roy Friedman, who came up with the idea.
"My grandparents, both Holocaust survivors from Auschwitz-Birkenau. My father has been sending delegations to Poland for about 40 years. In 1997 I was on a delegation to Poland as a student. In 2016 I joined my father on the delegation, and then I saw the difference between these years. In 2016 There were hardly any Holocaust survivors with us on the buses anymore. Then I tried to think how I could convey to the students who would go on expeditions in the future what I felt, since there were Holocaust survivors with me on the expedition. I kept thinking about how I would bring students in the future to meet the survivors, when in about 20 years There won't be any more among us."
What is the solution you were thinking of?
"We photographed Holocaust survivors with existing innovative volumetric technology for the purpose of creating content in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). This is in order to perpetuate the stories of Holocaust survivors, so that even in the future students can meet survivors 'face to face'."
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Roy Friedman, founder of Never Again VR (Photo: Private)
Friedman, who deals in real estate investments in England, participated in the three hackathons that were there.
As mentioned, we used existing technology and photographed Holocaust survivors in collaboration with the Yoom company in their special photography studio.
Dr. Yonatan Giron from Reichman University assisted us technologically. The majority was self-financed by me and with the help of people who volunteered to help, and thus we saved paying professionals. We photographed 15 Holocaust survivors, and the goal is to continue."
Was it hard to convince them to take a picture?
"It wasn't difficult. There are more people who want to be photographed than we are able to photograph. If we have our own studio, we will be able to photograph more. The company Yoom helped us as much as it could, but they cannot bring us their studio every two days. We need about NIS 2 million To establish our own studio for the benefit of these photographs. The goal is to photograph at least 100 Holocaust survivors with this technology. By the way, at the moment it is photographs of Holocaust survivors, but in the future it can also focus, for example, on people who will tell about significant moments in the establishment of the state."
Friedman admits that getting investors is one of the problems.
"There are many entities that receive a lot of money for the sake of the Holocaust issue, but perhaps in this project, the importance of photographing the survivors with the help of innovative technology is not sufficiently understood. It is very difficult to obtain money for such a project. We are constantly trying to contact different entities in the hope that the amount will be found."
Friedman already plans to start using the results of the photographs that took place.
"For example, in the last hackathon, we worked with the 11th comprehensive high school in Ashdod," he says. "They have a 'beacon for revival' program.
We worked together with them on preparing a lesson plan for students with virtual reality.
This means that tomorrow morning these ambassadors of the trend can already move between schools and give a lesson using the holograms to the students."
Dean Kospel, a communication and marketing student at Reichman, who is a partner along with Lia Blum and Raphael Rubens in the project "Face" (Photo: Margarita Yousfov)
to connect survivors
"I was on a mission to Poland a few months ago through the university, and in fact it really connected me to the subject of the Holocaust," says Dean Kospel, 24, a communication and marketing student in Reichman, who is a partner along with Lia Blum and Raphael Rubens in the "Face" project, which won second place this year.
"I realized that I wanted to pass on what I experienced in Poland.
I am also a fellow of the Jewish Agency, a volunteer with Holocaust survivors, and a partner in establishing projects to commemorate the Holocaust. I was happy to hear that there is a hackathon that aims to put Holocaust survivors at the center.
Raphael already has a project called 'Face' together with other partners. His venture is for older people. Feed into artificial intelligence some kind of introduction about what, for example, old people like to talk about, what they don't like, and then the chat starts interviewing the old person, talking to him in a very kind and friendly way. In the end, it writes The old man has a complete biography with his entire resume.
What adjustments have you made?
"We adapted the content and questions to Holocaust survivors. The software will, for example, interview the survivor about his childhood, about different periods of his life, write a complete biography. The second step is that the artificial intelligence will be able to compare all the data, between all the biographies and then through keywords understand if there are survivors from that city, From the same area, from the same camp, survive with common hobbies - and then even bring them together and create a connection between them. The goal is twofold: both to alleviate loneliness and to make a digital commemoration for future generations thanks to the biographies. We used artificial intelligence, which is a very talked about thing today, for the benefit of the memory of the past."
"Our basic product is already ready. In the coming days we will start running tests with several associations in Israel. We are also trying to raise money to continue using this for a wide target audience," adds Rubens.
Tamar Kaufman, daughter of a Holocaust survivor, who works in the field of Holocaust commemoration, who was a mentor and a judge at the hackathon (Photo: Tal Kaufman)
Answering the deniers
Among the participants of the last hackathon were, as mentioned, quite a few young guys, students and soldiers, who worked on finding solutions to the challenges of the Holocaust.
"My job was to bridge the content world of the Holocaust to the young technological guys, to mediate my knowledge in the world of content to young people, so that they could translate it into ventures, draw ideas," says Tamar Kaufman, daughter of a Holocaust survivor, who deals in the field of Holocaust commemoration, who was a mentor and judge at a hackathon.
"The most fundamental thing I saw was the intergenerational connection, that young people want to be connected to the Holocaust but in their own fast language. For me, this was a defining thing. As someone who spends so much time in the worlds of commemoration, in museums and archives, I saw that it does interest them, but when it is accessed in their own fast language. For example, a team that won first place dealt with development related to holocaust denial, that is, how to produce through the institutional archives a response to statements of holocaust denial that are found online.
There was also the use of holograms, which answers the question of what would be done in a world without witnesses.
Another team offered to take an existing exhibit at the Ghetto Fighters House, part of which deals with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and make a chatbot with one of the leaders of the uprising to turn it into something dynamic and alive." Kaufman adds: "In order to connect the information to young people, you have to follow
their path, mediate the knowledge to technology, to their language.
As mentioned, it was formative to see the intergenerational connection and the great responsiveness of the young people.
If you want to link future generations to the Holocaust, you have to use their technological language, what they understand and want to see.
We are changing shifts.
'Spark for the generations' is an intermediary bridge for the younger generation."
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Holocaust and heroism day
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