A civilian initiative that seeks to preserve testimonies of survivors of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel has recently launched a unique online platform to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the atrocities.
The Edut 710 project (edut is Hebrew for “testimony”) was created following the massacre of some 1,200 people in the Gaza border communities and the kidnapping of over 250 others. More than 1,200 testimonies have been amassed so far by Edut’s 400 volunteers.
The online platform will enable communities, organizations and individuals to create personalized memorial ceremonies using Edut 710’s expanding archive of filmed testimonies and October 7-related materials.
The project’s founders said Edut 710’s mission is to build an archive that would eventually include every available testimony.
“October 7 will forever be remembered as the darkest day in the history of Israel. This pivotal event calls for a robust national framework dedicated to preserving its memory, serving both as a crucial research resource and a means of healing for us and future generations,” said the founders.
The testimonies are catalogued in an innovative, digital archive designed to preserve every detail with the help of AI tools and other advanced technologies.
Hundreds of testimonies from the archive have already been made available to the public via Edut 710’s website and official YouTube channel. Additional testimonies are set to be released soon. The testimonies are currently being translated into English, Arabic, Russian, German, French and Spanish.
Although the project is a nonprofit cooperative, it has a host of partners, including Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University, Oranim Academic College of Education, the National Library of Israel (NLI), the 8200 Alumni Association, Microsoft Garage Israel, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, and several high-tech firms.
