Heading to the Holy land

YAVNET has been in development for over a year now. Since April 2007 we have been researching, exploring, and testing various ideas related to making Jewish knowledge more accessible and dynamic. (Look for our earlier thought experiments in the Projects section soon.) Articulating our goals and how we intend to achieve them is our primary activity. Analysis and action baby!

Now that we have identified the Tagged Tanakh as our principle project along with smaller initiatives like the Visual Midrash Group(with two more in the pipeline), we are ready to mingle in wider circles in an effort to tap into the zeitgeist of Jewish innovation. We have applied to two “fellowships” in support of our work with YAVNET. ROI120 is a Bronfman and Shusterman supported endeavor that brings 120 hipster heebs from around the world to Jerusalem for a five day summit to discuss all things Jewish and innovative. Past ROIers include: YLove, Dan Sieradski, and the peeps behind Jewish Robot.

The second fellowship is a 6 week think tank of sorts called the PresenTense Institute for Creative Zionism for 18 people based in Jerusalem. The PICZ founders were recently awarded an Avi Chai grant. From 9-5 PICZ fellows work on our individual projects (mine being YAVNET) and twice a week we attend tailored seminars, lectures, panels and meetings with people related to our field. We all sort of collaborate and work in the same space kinda like Jewish coworking.

Seven long years have passed since my last visit to Israel and as you can imagine I am quite stoked. I’m excited about sharing our work on YAVNET with others and gleaning more ideas from those interactions. Specific goals in Israel include:

• Identifying the best Hebrew digital files of the Bible
• locating significant Hebrew datasets that JPS can license for translation and integration into the Tagged Tanakh
• gathering academic and social validators for our projects
• exploring partnership opportunities with other organizations that share our goals and values

I will be blogging regularly from Jtown to keep you abreast of my activities. And if you have any suggestions or pointers for my 7 week stay in Israel please pass them along!