Until four years ago, Haim Hacohen, 37, was a full-time student in a haredi Orthodox yeshiva in the Israeli city of Ramat Bet Shemesh. Called MetekuAI, the company and its 10 employees — all Ethiopian Israelis — combine artificial intelligence with human expertise to tackle problematic online content. Hacohen is an alumnus of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)’s Tech Ventures Program, which helps integrate haredi Jews into Israel’s high-tech sector. “From the yeshiva world, there’s no natural pathway, so we help to bridge that gap.”Since its inception in 2006, the initiative has helped 130,000 haredim find jobs. “When I started, there were zero Bedouin high-tech graduates at Ben-Gurion University.

Source: Ethiopian News April 20, 2023 15:46 UTC