Haredi students build apps for prayer navigation and Jewish-life alerts

An end-of-program showcase by the Haredi technology and science nonprofit Baba-Da was held in Jerusalem on Monday, the first day of Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, marking the conclusion of its first pilot in a new curriculum. More than 100 Haredi students from schools around Israel took part in a yearlong application-development course and then competed in a festive hackathon-style marathon.

The students were split into eight groups. Each group chose a complex problem in advance and, with guidance from industry mentors and the course teachers, developed a technological solution. The organization said the projects demonstrated strong technical ability and a deep understanding of the material.

Among the presentations were advanced drone-technology apps for control, monitoring, safety checks and flight-zone identification, as well as smart-home and automation systems. Other teams showed artificial-intelligence tools, including dedicated databases for smart recognition, and applications tailored to Jewish daily life, such as navigation to the nearest minyan and alerts for prayer times.

Projects were judged on originality, sophisticated use of sensors, design and user experience, and the quality of the presentation. The winning groups received valuable prizes. Baba-Da director Michal Ibgi said the marathon was an important finish to a groundbreaking program, and added that the nonprofit sees it as a privilege to provide professional and educational support to thousands of children and adults in Haredi education while keeping strict observance of religious values. The program ran in cooperation with MIT and the Lasham organization, with the stated goal of making advanced technology, including AI, automation and practical problem-solving, accessible in a supervised, value-based framework.