FEBRUARY 15 • 2024 | 47
SPOTLIGHT
On Nov. 14, 2023, hundreds
of Metro Detroiters look-
ing to attend the March for
Israel were left stranded at
the D.C. airport when the
busing company they con-
tracted with experienced a
“sick-out” from drivers who
didn’t want to take them to
the rally.
Recently, a lawsuit was
filed in federal court in New
York alleging that bus driv-
ers coordinated an antise-
mitic refusal of service to a
group from Manhattan, who
were also left stranded.
The Jewish Federation of
Detroit is not a part of that
lawsuit.
According to Federation
CEO Steven Ingber, “We
remain in close contact
with federal and state law
enforcement authorities,
including the U.S. Justice
Department and the
Attorney General’s Office
for the District of Columbia,
who are actively pursuing
the matter and assessing
next steps. We are also con-
sidering whether to take
additional legal measures.
“We will continue to seek
justice for this incident with
the utmost diligence as we
work to combat antisem-
itism and acts of hatred
against the Jewish people,”
he added.
Metro Detroiters who want
to understand and use
artificial intelligence for
job hunting can join a free
program on Feb. 26 from
1- 2.30 p.m. at the head-
quarters of Gesher Human
Services (29699 Southfield
Road, Southfield).
The program will be an
interactive demonstration
designed to introduce
beginners to the world of
artificial intelligence (AI)
and specifically Chat GPT,
to show how it works and
how it can be applied easily
for job hunting. No registra-
tion is required.
Also on Feb. 26, for job
seekers with limited com-
puter skills, Gesher will be
starting a new computer
training program, Office
and Computer Essentials:
Microsoft Word and Excel.
The program will run on
Mondays and Wednesdays,
from Feb. 26 to Apr. 3, 1
p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The fee for
the program is $499 but full
and partial scholarships are
available.
Course prerequisites
include basic keyboarding,
email and internet access,
and access to a computer
for practice. The program
includes instruction on
creating and editing Word
and Excel files, formatting
text in Word, creating basic
Excel worksheets and using
simple formulas, creating
PDF files and moving files
to a flash drive.
To download an enroll-
ment application form for
the computer training, visit
Enrollment_Application_
Gesher.pdf (geshermi.
org) and email it to drot-
ter@geshermi.org; or
call Dave Rotter at (248)
233-4243.
Federation in Contact with DOJ
Artificial Intelligence for Job Hunting
Farber Head of School Leaving
Dr. Josh Levisohn, head of
Farber Hebrew Day School,
will be leaving his position
at the end of June to take a
position as director of Boston
for the Shalom Hartman
Institute.
“The position allows me
to return to Boston, where
I grew up, and to be closer
to my family and my wife’s
family. It will also allow me
an opportunity to do some
creative and important work
that goes back to my original
roots as a Ph.D. student,
”
Levisohn wrote in an email to
parents.
“However,
” he continued, “it
also means leaving a place and
people that I have come to love.
The Farber-Akiva community
is a special one — every school
likes to bill itself as a family, but
I have never seen it as close to a
reality as at Farber. The school
represents the best of a Modern
Orthodox school and I have
been proud to be associated
with the school for the last four
years.
”
Nathan Gonik, M.D., Farber
Hebrew Day School Board
president, wrote to parents:
“With Dr. Levisohn’s guidance
and the counsel of Farber’s
strategic planning consultants,
we are well on our way to
realizing the next stage of our
school’s history. Dr Levisohn,
the school administration
and our committed board are
engaged in planning for not
only this year’s successes, but
for the future.
“I look forward to
updating our community
on the developments in
our professional leadership
that we will implement for
next year and beyond. With
every challenge comes an
opportunity. I am saddened to
lose a friend and colleague, but
I am excited by the opportunity
ahead of us.
”
The Yiddish Book Center
was awarded a grant of
$147,000 from the National
Endowment for the
Humanities to support the
next phase of its Yiddish
optical character recognition
initiative. This project
processes Yiddish books
with optical character
recognition (OCR) software
so that images of pages
from Yiddish books become
searchable text.
The Digital Humanities
Advancement grant will
fund an experimental system
to detect errors in the OCR
text. The Yiddish Book
Center is working with
partners at the Linguistic
Data Consortium at the
University of Pennsylvania
to develop this software.
This multi-year project
will result in a large set of
corrected, searchable text
that can be used for research
in a wide range of areas.
Yiddish Book Center Awarded Grant