In association with Morris+
The startup company "Morris+" deals with digital commemoration even in routine. Immediately after the disaster on October 7, the company launched a voluntary project to establish memorial sites for all the victims of the massacre in the Gaza envelope and the "Iron Swords" war. To date, more than one thousand and two hundred memorial sites have been opened, telling the life story of the fallen (and not just their tragic end), allowing family and friends to eulogize, share memories and commemorate their loved ones.
Screenshot from the memorial site of Haim Yeshurun Katzman z"l, screenshot from Morris+
No one imagined that in one day, the life story of over a thousand people in Israel would be cut off. The terrible massacre carried out by Hamas in the Gaza envelope left thousands of families bleeding, whose loved ones were murdered, and the war declared following the massacre brings more and more families to the bereaved family with each passing day. As part of civil society's mobilization to volunteer to solve the crises created during these difficult times, one can also find the exciting social venture of "Morris+", an Israeli startup from Kiryat Ono, which has volunteered to establish memorial sites for the fallen.
Entrepreneur and CEO Sinai Zilber says: "I founded Morris+ 3 years ago, out of a desire to provide a digital platform that will enable the commemoration of disappearing analog generations: Holocaust survivors, fallen soldiers of Israel's wars, the founding generation, grandparents. I never imagined that there would be such a great need, time and time again, to commemorate young people whose lives were cut short prematurely. When we developed the platform, COVID-<> struck the world, with millions of dead.
We were not prepared then to deal with the commemoration of those who died from the plague, except for a few. Three years passed, and on 7 October 10, the terrible massacre took place near the Gaza Strip. We are all sad, pained, in national trauma. The pain of the families of the fallen – as well as the families of the abducted and wounded – is immense. But this time, in the midst of all this pain – as a startup, as a platform, as a team – we were ready, and we volunteered for a difficult and challenging mission – commemorating all the victims of the massacre and war."
Even in routine times, Morris+'s platform serves to commemorate the deceased and digitally preserve life stories. The focus, Zilber tells us, is not death – on the contrary, the basic human need to remember life's beautiful moments. Morris+ makes it possible to quickly and easily set up a digital memorial site, without any technical knowledge. The system is very simple and allows you to upload content, photos and videos, as well as invite friends and family to share experiences and memories.
With the launch of the commemoration project in the days following 7.10, the company recruited a team of volunteers from Israel and around the world, including teams from companies such as Deloitte Israel, and worked to quickly establish memorial and memorial sites for the victims of the massacre and war. The company's team maps the spaces from various visible sources, quickly sets up a digital website for each space, and uploads obituaries, memoirs, photos and videos from around the web to commemorate space life, not just its tragic end. After the establishment of the site, the company acts sensitively to give it to the families of the fallen - so that they will receive management of the site, and can continue to expand the work of commemorating their loved ones - sharing memories and photos from family albums, and inviting friends, who will add their own memories.
To date, the company has established memorial sites for over 1,200 fallen soldiers, and intends to continue to establish a digital memorial for each and every one of the fallen that has become known about them, and those that at least will still be known. All sites of the spaces are available and open to the public. Anyone is invited to view the digital memorial wall for the fallen soldiers of the Iron Swords at the Morris+ site, and enter the fallen sites.
Adi Saadi is one of dozens of volunteers in the commemoration project. She joined the volunteer team five days after the massacre. Adi says: "Like everyone else in the days after 7.10, I felt I had to do something, to contribute somehow. I heard about Morris+'s project on WhatsApp, and immediately joined. This is such an exciting project, which helps bereaved families in the most difficult moments and long after. Much of what we remember today is digital – our mobile photos, our social media profiles – but all of these disappear and are not maintained after we die. I am happy and proud to volunteer in this project, which commemorates the memory of our fallen."
In recent days, the company has begun the work of transferring the memorial sites to the families of the fallen.
For example, the memorial site of Chaim Yeshurun Katzman, who was murdered on Black Saturday in Kibbutz Dune, was handed over to his mother, Chana. Haim received his Ph.D. in International Studies from the University of Washington in the United States, and after returning to Israel he went to live with his friends from the army on Kibbutz Dune. Haim worked on the kibbutz as a farmer, mechanic and gardener, was a DJ in his spare time, and alongside all this, engaged in research and teaching in the Department of Politics and Communication at Hadassah College. A man of many actions. He was also a member of Dune's alert squad, and was murdered by Hamas terrorists while defending the kibbutz he loved so much. He was 32 years old when he fell.
Hannah Katzman, Haim's mother, photo: courtesy of the family
Hannah, Chaim's late mother, says: "We were very excited when Sinai contacted us and showed us the website set up by the volunteers at Morris+ in memory of Chaim. They have already compiled for us a lot of eulogies we received from Chaim's friends, and pictures of him from around the web. It's a place dedicated only to my life, to the life of my life. I shared the site with family and friends, and so we added more photos and videos, in Hebrew and English, from different periods of Chaim's life in Israel and the United States. I am full of gratitude and appreciation for this project, which makes sure that our memories with Haim will be preserved for many years to come, and will be accessible at all times to everyone, in Israel and around the world."
Zilber says that the work is not yet over. The company's team of volunteers is still working on gathering information and photos from the Internet and social networks in order to enrich the sites of the fallen before handing them over to the families for management. Every day new fallen soldiers or abductees are pronounced dead, and the work of commemoration for them is just beginning. The company hires volunteers who are interested in helping, and even allows entire teams in companies to devote a few hours to meaningful team volunteer activities of commemoration. You can contact the company with a volunteer request by e-mail. war23@memoriz.plus
The victims of the massacre in the Gaza envelope and the war dead are no longer with us, but their memories and the memory of their lives are now better preserved through digital commemoration projects, such as that of Morris+.
For more details, please contact Sinai Zilber, Entrepreneur and CEO of Morris+:sinai@memoriz.plus | 052-257-8418
In association with Morris+