Israeli entrepreneuers hosted a hackathon this month for the benefit of Holocaust survivors in Israel and across the world. Twenty-three teams took part in the 36-hour “Spark Hackathon” event on May 10 and 11 at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), hosted by TLV Starters, the organization behind the book “Startup Guide Tel Aviv.”
A panel of judges, which included Dov Moran, founder of Grove Ventures and Shira Fayans Birenbaum, the VP of Microsoft Israel, chose a third place, second place, and first place winner from the groups, who created projects that aim to “find and create feasible solutions for challenges in education, remembrance, and quality of life of Holocaust survivors,” as well as establish a platform that will enable collaboration and partnerships between companies and organizations, TLV Starters said in a previous statement.
Third place went to Meetnadev, a database that connects professionals, survivors, and volunteers, enabling Holocaust survivors to access free use of various professionals. The team won 2,500 NIS ($700) from Israeli companies AppsFlyer and Nice and Matav, the largest nursing support organization in Israel.
econd place went to הילף (meaning Help in Yiddish), a mobile app that creates a community to help Holocaust survivors, the elderly and the disabled. They received 5000 NIS (about $1400) from EY Israel, a member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited and Matrix, an IT company in Israel.
The winner was Momento, a group using virtual reality tech and augmented reality to create a visual experience of Jewish sites before and during the Holocaust, offering an authentic reconstruction of buildings, streets, ghettos, concentration camps, and extermination.
The group received 10,000 NIS ($2,802) as well as two months free access to Microsoft and a TFT screen. TLV Starters was founded by Erez Gavish and Natan Leibzon.
The initiative, led Gavish, Leibzon, Anat Greemland and Alon Rapaport had the support of leading Israeli venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, as well as the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel, Tel Aviv University, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and tech giant Microsoft. Israel marked Holocaust Memorial Day, or Yom Hashoah, on April 12 this year.