eretz
Autism Aids
Israeli soldiers work to provide
helpful apps for autistic people.
LEFT: IDF soldiers help
create apps for people
with autism.
JADE ALEXANDRE TIMES OF ISRAEL
S
of poor quality due to costly budget
issues.”
The project also helped OFEK soldiers
meet the three goals they abide by: “net-
working, working better together and
contributing to society,” Gurevich said.
“This is important for our soldiers as
it allows us to put our knowledge into
practice, all while continuing to learn at
the same time, creating a lasting legacy
of productive work.”
Gurevich said the 24-hour time frame
“provides an indication of how quickly
we can respond to a need through tech-
nology.” Prior to the hackathon, ALUT
organized several meetings in which
therapists, specialists and psychologists
educated the soldiers and volunteers
about autism and the challenges of both
the children and their parents. They
introduced some 100 different chal-
PHOTO COURTESY CENTER FOR
JEWISH ART/HEBREW UNIVERSITY
oldiers, parents of autistic children,
high school students and random
volunteers joined forces in Tel Aviv
recently to make life easier for people
with autism and their caregivers.
Some 85 people took part in a 24-hour
hackathon organized by OFEK, the com-
puting unit of the IAF. Held jointly with
ALUT, the Israel Society for Autistic
Children, people worked in groups to
put innovation in the service of disabil-
ity by creating an app or computer pro-
gram for the benefit of the children.
“Until recently, the only treatment
available for autistic children and adults
in Israel was admission into a psychi-
atric hospital,” said Arkady Gurevich,
chairman of the OFEK Alumni
Association. “Even the necessary equip-
ment or tools required to diagnose
a patient as autistic are minimal or
ABOVE: Great
(Hagdola) Synagogue
in Djerba, Tunisia, early
18th century.
T
he Center for Jewish Art
at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem launched the
world’s largest online database of
Jewish art.
The Bezalel Narkiss Index
lenges in total, out of which ALUT chose
13. OFEK then divided participants into
13 groups, each tackling one task.
The blank facial expression is a typi-
cal issue for autistic people who do not
know how to show facial expressions
when they are happy, mad or sad.
The condition makes communication
between autistic individuals and their
caregivers extremely difficult as the
facial expressions are impossible to
read.
One group tackled this challenge by
creating an app that aims to teach the
autistic person how to express their
feelings. The app displays an image of
a smiling face and asks the person to
imitate it. Then the app does the same
for other feelings. The app monitors the
expressions of the users to give them
feedback if they are doing it correctly
of Jewish Art is a collection of
digitized images and information
about Jewish artifacts from all
over the world. The online collec-
tion includes more than 260,000
images of objects and artifacts
from 700 museums, synagogues
and private collections in 41 dif-
ferent countries, as well as archi-
tectural drawings of 1,500 syna-
gogues and Jewish ritual buildings
from antiquity to the modern day.
The public can access the Bezalel
Index of Jewish Art (http://cja.
huji.ac.il/browser.php) and search
more than a quarter of a million
images, with accompanying details
and descriptions, either by simple
keyword search, or according to
or not.
Navigation is another issue that bur-
dens both people with autism and their
caregivers. It is common for autistic
persons going out in a group to want to
wander off on their own. The navigation
tools and apps now available are com-
plex to use.
One group aimed at simplifying the cur-
rent tools by creating a GPS built-in wear-
able device for the autistic person. The
device would then be linked to an app so
that if one leaves the group’s perimeters,
the instructor would get an immediate
update on where the person is.
“While the project took place in the
form of a competition, the real prize
was to bring attention to the autistic
community of Israel and eventually
develop what could be life changing
technology for many,” Gurevich said. •
such categories as iconographical
subject, origin, artist, object, com-
munity, collection or location.
The Center for Jewish Art is
the world’s foremost institution
dedicated to the preservation of the
Jewish artistic heritage. The center’s
activities include documentation,
research, education and publishing.
The digitization of the Center
for Jewish Art archives became
possible in the framework of a
joint project with the National
Library of Israel and Judaica
Division of Harvard University
Library. Among the many funders
is the local Morris and Beverly
Baker Foundation. It was gener-
ously funded by the Rothschild
Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe,
“Landmarks” Program of the
Israeli Prime Minister’s Office,
Judaica Book Fund endow-
ments established by David B.
Keidan (Harvard), as well as
by the Conference on Jewish
Material Claims Against Germany,
the Morris and Beverly Baker
Foundation, Mrs. Josephine Urban
and Mr. William Gross.
The Israeli government recog-
nized the Bezalel Narkiss Index
of Jewish Art as a non-tangible
national heritage in 2012, and it is
today considered the most com-
prehensive database of Jewish art
in the world, existing as a virtual
museum available to all. •
My name is Fred S. Findling. I am
a Holocaust survivor. I wrote
a book about my life and
experiences titled “Siegfried The
Dragon Slayer”. It is available on
Amazon for $12.95.
2187350
32
August 17 • 2017
jn
This photo of me was taken in
Southern France in 1940,
during World War II.
I speak twice per month at
the Holocaust Memorial Center
on Orchard Lake Rd. in
Farmington Hills.