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supermarket checkout lines. All signs
that the United States, born in the
American Revolution and weaned by
the Industrial Revolution, is well into
yet another revolution — one of floppy
disks and cathode rays and silicon
chips.
A revolution that's spreading to
Jewish places and being used for
Jewish things. Spreading so much that
of all the personal computers sold in
the United States, it is estimated that
between 10 and 15 percent are sold to
Jews, who make up less than three
percent of the population.
As the Christian world goes so
goes the Jewish world," says Rabbi
Irving Rosenbaum. When it comes to
computers in Jewish life, Rosenbaum
is the Apple of our eye. He is, in fact,
the head of something called the Insti-
tute for Computers in Jewish Life,
headquartered in Chicago. Rosen-
baum, an Orthodox rabbi and long-
time educator, started the institute in
1978 when he became convinced of
computers' "potential for teaching."
And so, with the help of some public-
spirited philanthropic individuals," he
_ set out to use that potential to improve
Jewish education.
The not-for-profit institute de-
velops computer games and programs
to teach Jewish subjects to Jewish stu-
dents in Jewish schools. Programs like
"Crumb Eater" in which a kid helps
the star of the game get rid of leaven
before Passover. Programs on the Ten
Commandments, what blessings to
say on food, how to blow the Shofar on
Rosh Hashanah. Programs on every-
thing from the intricacies of Hebrew
grammar, to the fine points of Biblical
commentary, to the excitement of
"Jewish IQ Baseball," which comes
complete with the sights and sounds of
a real ball game but in which the ques-
tions concern Jewish history, not Babe
Ruth. In all , there are more than 100
programs put out by Davka Corp. the
marketing arm of the institute.
(Davka is the Hebrew word for "pre-
cise" or "exact.") And all of them, says
Rosenbaum, are designed to
"entertain and educate" at the same
time.
• "All of our games have sophisti
cated graphics that appeal to computer
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.
BY JOSEPH AARON
Special to The Jewish News
Continued from Page 1
game fans," he says. The difference is
that they're designed to create an
interest in Torah and Jewish study."
More than 200 day schools in the
country use computers to teach their
students. About 15 percent of the
country's Hebrew and supplementary
schools also have computers. Davka,
Rosenbeum says, supplies the pro-
grams for 99 percent of those schools.
"A computer teaches logical
skills, because it proceeds by logical
steps," says Rosenbaum. "It teaches
discipline and how to follow directions
because it won't do anything if you
don't tell it to. And computers aren't
critical — if a kid makes a mistake it
doesn't show a face saying this kid is a
dope.' It's not judgmental. And it never
ever loses patience."
"Computers can do what a book
can't," he adds. It can progress at each
student's pace and give him graphic*
and audio reinforcement."
And that's good, Rosenbaum says,
if you're trying to teach Jewish sub-
jects. "Students often come to Hebrew
school against their will," he says. If
you get a student intrigued and in-
volved, you may get him interested in
Jewish studies."
Not that computers will replace
teachers. "Computers are not a
threat," says Rabbi Leonard Matanky,
supervisor of the Associated Talmud
Torahs of Chicago, whose teachers de-
veloped many of Davka's programs.
"Computers are only valuable if you
know how to use them well. Com-
puters need teachers as much as
teachers need computers.
"They're great for straight infor-
mation, but you can't get from a corn-
puter a value system or a feeling about
things — the subtle kinds of things
that only come from human interac-
tion."
Teachers themselves are making
use of computer technology as, for
example, through the Coalition for Al-
ternatives in Jewish Education. The
coalition's "Mikasher" Project is de-
signed to make Hebrew school
teachers from around the country
aware of each other's expertise. Every
new CAJE member is asked to list as
many as five areas in which he is an
expert. That information then is fed
into a computer. Once a year all of
CAJE's 2,000 members get a com-
puterized directory of who is an expert
in what subject and where he or she
can be reached.
"Parents are often the ones who
get schools to buy computers," reports
Rabbi Rosenbaum. "Some seem to
think that we will solve the problems
of intermarriage, assimilation and so
on with computers. We won't. We can't
delude ourselves that computers are
the answer to Jewish education. The're
just a tool."
Davka's programs are designed to
be used in schools. But soon there will
be Jewish computer games designed
mainly for use at home. And where
Davka has a kid to play a game,
Yaacov Kirschen's idea is to involve a
kid in a game.
Kirschen is probably best known
as the creater of the "Dry Bones" comic
strip in the Jerusalem Post. The rea-
son I started "Dry Bones" 12 years ago,
three months before "DOonesbury,"
was to take the comic strip, which tra-
ditionally was done just for laughs and
had no content, and use it to talk about
things like what Jews are and what
Israel is. I wanted to bring content to
the medium. I'm into computers now
for the same reason."
Kirschen, who was a computer
consultant to IBM in the 1960s,
started by taking popular computer
games, bringing content to them and
converting them for Jewish use. Thus
was born "Nosh cosh," his answer to
"PAC Man." In Kirschen's game, the
goal is not to eat meaningless little
dots but to learn. Thus, the task is to
recognize and eat only kosher food,
being careful to avoid Peter Pig, Larry
Lobster and Fred Froglegs and being
careful to wait long enough between
consuming ice cream and hamburgers.
After that came "Aleph Baiters," a
Jewish "Space Invaders," and "Bor-
ders," Kirschen's version of "Donkey
Kong." But Kirschen wasn't content to
stop there. He didn't just want to take
old ideas and treat them in a new way.
What he and the Gesher Company of
Israel wanted was to come up with a
whole new idea in computer games.
The new idea he calls a Rolie.
Continued on Page 16