A woman from New Jersey is striving to put an end to hate — she is flipping the switch on technology that is often used to promote antisemitism and instead using it to promote peace.
Morielle Lotan is remembering her nephew, Addir Mesika.
“He was the kindest, most humble human being, friend,” she said.
He was killed last year by Hamas terrorists in the October 7th attack on Israel, murdered while protecting his girlfriend and two other women.
He’s the inspiration for the ADIR Challenge Foundation .
The mission is to innovate the combat of antisemitism and hate.
In the same way technology and social media have led to the proliferation of hate and anti-Jewish sentiment, Lotan hopes the ADIR Challenge can change the narrative and turn hate into an embrace.
“The kind of solutions we need have to do with AI machine learning even psychology in tech, how do you decrease feeling of the other and increase empathy,” Lotan said.
The foundation, which is partly run out of her apartment in Hoboken, plans to award $1 million to innovators.