Shalom,
As the Home Front Command guidelines remain unchanged today, the Technion management has decided that activities will proceed tomorrow, Tuesday, October 31, 2023, at the campuses in Haifa, following the same guidelines as today.
Have a good evening!
Israel’s battle against misinformation and hate is overwhelming on most days.
During a war, it goes on overdrive.
By last measure, online anti-Semitism has spiked by a massive 1200% since October 7th
When faced with a river of hate from legions of enemy countries and sympathizers, Israel’s Hasbara (positive PR) efforts are chronically understaffed, under-funded and under-equipped.
We’re used to relying on the IDF spokesperson, Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a smattering of PR networks in America to counter a monstrous and well-funded propaganda and misinformation engine in Iran, Gaza, Russia and other state-sponsored centers of Jew hate.
Since October 7th, there are certainly more Israelis and Jews than ever constantly posting, reposting, commenting, debating and otherwise engaging online to combat anti-Semitic and anti-Israel lies from the usual suspects.
The online war is looking marginally better, but we’re still starting far behind our enemies.
Enter Zachary Bamberger, an American oleh, Cornell graduate and current Masters student at CS Taub.
When he saw what was happening on October 7th, he sprang into action.
Using his prodigious talents in machine learning and love for debate, to fight the immediate onslaught of anti-Israel lies and anti-Semitism.
Instead of reflexively jumping onto Facebook or other social media to fight from the keyboard, he started building.
In only a few days, he enlisted the help of 40 Ph.D.s in his field to completely change the battlefield for social media disinformation.
Imagine AI being able to instantly check whether a post violates the terms of service (TOS) of the specific platform where it’s made.
Imagine the ability to report said post on the spot.
And if it doesn’t violate the TOS, to instantly generate the best counterargument?
Imagine instantly translating (with high quality) posts in Arabic and reporting them if anti-Israel and against the TOS.
And just as importantly, what if non-Hebrew speakers could instantly translate all the posts by Israelis and understand what’s really happening here?
These are no longer aspirational, but an actual suite of tools launched by Zack’s company.
Covering APIs, AI-driven translators and other tools based on their proprietary large language model, it is already collaborating with some of the best-known experts in the field, including at AI21 Labs, Google, and Microsoft.
What Zach and his team have created in 10 days is no less than an army of robots to massively increase the impact of pro-Israel efforts on social media.
When deployed on a larger scale, this will most certainly shift the balance of content in the right direction and take away the advantage of numbers from our online enemies.
We are proud to have Zach in the Technion family and wish him and his team tremendous success.
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Have an awesome student or faculty or staff story to share with us about how they’re (or you are) helping the war effort or on the home front?
We want to feature you!
Email our English PR Manager, Yuri Kruman.
As part of the “Mutual Help Centre” established at the Technion with the start of the war, two Technion workers, Lior Goldberg and Michal Meir, organised a donation of laptops to the evacuee children from the Gaza Envelope.
“Haifa Municipality were the ones who approached us,” says Goldberg, Human Resources Coordinator at the Andrew & Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical & Computer Engineering. “Their support centre for evacuees who ended up in Haifa asked if we could assist in finding computers for the children.”
The Technion Supplies Unit helped Goldberg and Meir contact Ecommunity – a factory that recycles electronic waste and employs persons with disabilities. The Technion routinely transfers to Ecommunity electronic equipment that’s no longer in use.
“Ecommunity donated five laptops, which were brought to the Technion on Thursday” says Meir, Head of the Department of Prizes and Awards at the Faculty Office. “Lior and I drove to Dan Panorama Hotel, where the evacuee families are currently staying, to give the computers to children evacuated from Sderot. It’s exciting to see how the Technion volunteers, how we can help so directly those in need of help.
L-R: Michal Meir, Lior Goldberg, the mother of one of the Sderot children who received a laptop
Many people on campus likely don’t know about Technion’s second-hand store.
Even fewer realize its true impact for the community.
Ronit Faran, who runs the store since 2014, says it’s been continuously open and run by volunteers, including herself, except for during COVID time.
Everything here has been donated by people in the Technion community.
Everyone is welcome to donate, volunteer or buy.
When you enter the store, you immediately notice the large variety of clothes for women and children, Judaica and knick-knacks.
Other rooms contain books, toys, winter things and men’s clothes. They sometimes get dishes, pots and pans and assorted others.
They likewise sell (at cost) handicrafts from Kfar Tikva, a special youth village housing children with special needs.
The store was founded by the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with the help of faculty administration head Irit Inbar, with the express purpose of helping students who are not of means or otherwise refugees from Russia or Ukraine or elsewhere, who may be lacking clothes and other things for their dorms upon move-in.
And help students, they have. Since its inception, the store has raised 200,000 shekels that were donated to the Student Union. All while selling everything for 5 shekels or other nominal price.
During the current war, the store has stepped up in a big way to help evacuees from the South and North.
For example, on the day after the terror attack on October 7th, Ronit delivered a carful of toys to children evacuated from the Gaza Envelope.
She has done the same since then for children evacuated from the North currently housed at the Carmel Spa, an exclusive, normally adults-only resort.
Everyone is welcome at the store, whether to buy, donate or volunteer.
This is one big way the Technion community is helping the Home Front.
In the beginning of last week, the Technion Youth Program Centre held a meeting with children evacuated from Bror Hayil, Sderot and Shlomi, who are now staying at the Dan Panorama hotel in Haifa.
For several hours, the children explored mechanical engineering subjects, built systems, learned about controls, and programmed robots. Focusing on the activity, the teamwork, solving problems and learning offered the children a support envelope in these difficult days.
Arielle, a tenth grader, and Amit, an eighth grader, said they truly enjoyed the activity. Other pupils spoke to the instructors about the great experience, and how interesting the content was.
Saying goodbye to the children, we left them a mind game and a book of challenging riddles, gifts from the Youth Program Centre.
Technion Youth Program Centre is proud of the privilege to intrigue, fascinate, embrace and give strength to Israel’s children, now and always.
Together, we shall overcome.
To the Honorable António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
Urgent Call for the Immediate Release of the Kidnapped Israeli Infants and Children
We, the undersigned child advocates, experts in child welfare, rights, trauma, and psychology, together with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, call upon the UN, World Leaders, and the international community to demand the immediate release of the kidnapped Israeli children in the Hamas attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023.
In this attack, a confirmed number of 222 people were kidnapped, among them about 30 children. Six of these children are babies, some of them still nursing. Some of the abductees are in need of medication, special nutrition, or treatment.
The abductions were part of a larger, widespread, and cruel assault, resulting in the tragic loss of at least 1,300 lives and leaving thousands more with enduring physical and emotional wounds. Children and infants were subjected to unspeakable brutality and forced to witness the harrowing abuse and murder of their parents, grandparents, and siblings. These young souls endured prolonged hours of terror, often confined within the homes that had once been their sanctuaries. The agonizing experiences etched indelible scars upon their hearts and minds, shaping their lives in ways we can scarcely imagine. The infants and children who were brutally abducted from their families, deprived of the comforting presence of a supportive companion, were thrust into a world already fraught with the profound grief and trauma stemming from the events they had witnessed. Their pain will linger and they will carry the ordeal with them throughout their lives.
Time is swiftly slipping away, each passing day posing an imminent, existential peril to the lives and well-being of these vulnerable infants and children. Clinical testimonies worldwide point to the devastating effects of abduction and captivity on children. The very basic foundation of security and protectiveness was savagely torn away from those infants and children. These children are now exposed to post-traumatic disorders (anxiety, intrusive thoughts, nightmares), emotional problems (fears, difficulties with trusting and bonding, impaired emotional development), harsh behavioral problems (social aversion, developmental delay), and cognitive damage ( memory loss, learning difficulties). These non-reversible outcomes will affect their entire lives. Every day, every hour, every minute spent in captivity leaves its lifelong mark on the souls and bodies of the children and deepens their injury into continued and irreparable damage. The longer these children are being imprisoned, the harsher the outcomes that will adversely impact their lives.
Any injury to children in warfare is terrible and intolerable. Children must be protected from violent struggles involving states, groups, and nations. This applies to children in Israel and in Gaza, who have all suffered from the conflict for years. But this brutal heinous attack targeting children, including their torture and abduction, marks an entirely new level of violence because the children were the intended target of the attack. It is the worst imaginable crime against humanity and the grimmest violation of basic principles of morality.
International Law also imposes a special obligation on nations and organizations to act immediately. Holding civilians hostage is a gross violation of the law of armed conflict [Common Article 3] and constitutes a war crime. The widespread, intentional, and systematic attack on civilians constitutes a crime against humanity. Abduction and arbitrary, incommunicado detention constitute a violation of every relevant international standard set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose core also applies to non-state actors like Hamas, as well as in other relevant international instruments accepted by Palestine. The latter include, but are not limited to the Convention on the Rights of the Child articles 6 (right to life and development), 9 (non-separation from parents), 19 (protection from violence of all kinds), as well as relevant provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
We entreat you to take the strongest action within your means right now and use all available levers to secure the release of the kidnapped infants and children. Among them are Kfir, a 9-month-old baby still breastfeeding, and Avigail, a 3-year-old who witnessed the savage murder of her parents.
Each passing minute that a child remains in captivity is a moment when our collective humanity hangs in the balance. We beseech leaders worldwide to unite in the common cause of releasing these kidnapped children, as a small initial step towards restoring our shared humanity. The fragile and vulnerable lives of these infants and children are inextricably intertwined with our actions and yours. Will we forsake them to endure torment, fear, and harm beyond repair or will we rise to the occasion and rescue them from this dire predicament?
Approximately 400 Israeli and international senior academics, and some 700 more experts in various disciplines and from various academic institutions call upon the international community and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to demand the immediate release of the kidnapped Israeli children. In their letter, sent today, the experts speak of the devastating consequences of trauma on children’s development and their future lives. The longer these children are being imprisoned, the harsher the outcomes that will adversely impact their lives.
Leading experts in a variety of disciplines – social work, psychology, criminology, law, medicine, and public policy – signed the letter, which calls on the global community to take the strongest action within your means to secure release of the Israeli children held in Gaza.
The letter, calling for the release of the 30 Israeli children held by Hamas since the savage attack of October 7th, was a joint initiative of the Headquarters of the Families of the Kidnapped and Missing Persons and experts from the leading Israeli academic institutions – the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, the Technion, Bar Ilan University, and Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
Signatories of the letter include leading scholars from New Zealand, Brazil, Europe, and the US, among them researchers from Yale University, Harvard, Duke University and UCLA. Some of the notable names include:
Prof. Judith Lewis Herman, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, a global expert in complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
Prof. Edward Tronick, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, expert on communication with children, developer of the “Still Face” paradigm.
Prof. Alicia F. Lieberman, Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair in Infant Mental Health, UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, Director, Child Trauma Research Program.
Prof. Charles H. Zeanah, Tulane University School of Medicine, child psychiatrist and expert on the psychology of toddlers, children, and teenagers.
Prof. Avshalom Caspi, Duke University, known for his groundbreaking research of the effect on development of violence experienced during childhood.
Dr. Eli Lebowitz, Yale Child Study Center, expert on anxiety in children
Shalom
After assessing the situation in the early evening and considering the intensification of the fighting in the south and the tension on the northern border, the Technion management decided to postpone the return to full routine for the time being and to maintain the format in which we have operated in recent weeks. Following are the guidelines for tomorrow, Sunday, October 29, 2023, subject to Home Front Command guidelines:
Members of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering rolled up their sleeves, quite literally, and set to baking 140 challahs for reserve servicemen, most of them – from the faculty.
Faculty dean Prof. Sima Yaron joined graduate students and staff in the work. The challahs were baked in the faculty’s semi-industrial facility, and taken to the multiple bases by volunteer faculty workers, in their private cars. Paintings and letters from the workers’ children were attached to each letter.
“The ray of light that gives us strength in those trying times is the way the Israeli people, on the front and in the rear, stand together and help each other,” says Prof. Yaron. “Since the Black Saturday, the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering is trying to do its part for the soldiers, and for the residents of the affected towns. Yesterday we came together, all of us, students, faculty, and staff, and used the ovens that we normally use to study the process of baking, to bake challahs that were sent with a lot of love to reservists around the country. Some of the challahs were sent to faculty students who have been called up. We wish them all, together with all the soldiers, and of course the hostages held in Gaza, a swift and safe return.”
Shalom
Based on our most recent situational assessment, and in compliance with evolving guidelines from the Home Front Command, the Technion administration has decided on the following course of action:
In light of the ongoing conflict and the significant number of students and faculty called to reserve duty, the Technion has decided to postpone the commencement of the 2023-2024 academic year. According to a joint statement from the leadership of Israel’s research universities, the new academic year at the Technion will begin once the reservists start to be discharged, but no earlier than December 3, 2023.
A preliminary notice regarding the updated start date will be issued at least two weeks in advance. During this period, our focus will be on transitioning back to regular academic activities. Efforts will be made to integrate both new and continuing students, address academic gaps, and refresh course materials.
To further support our reservists, we have formed a committee comprised of faculty members. Working closely with both the undergraduate and graduate schools, this committee will facilitate academic accommodations for reservists. Additionally, we have launched a comprehensive support system to assist with their reintegration into academic life after reserve duty. The Dean of Students is also offering a range of services to reservists, including but not limited to, waiving dormitory rent for the month of October and providing financial and personal assistance to both reservists and their families.
As for the second-term examinations for the Spring and Summer semesters of 2022-2023, as well as other specific accommodations, a separate announcement will be released in due course.
The Technion takes great pride in its reservists and their contributions. We eagerly await your safe return and look forward to resuming teaching and learning on campus.
Know that however long it takes, we stand by you.
