Verbit has taken on a new pro-bono project to help accurately preserve the testimonies and stories of individuals who bore witness to the events of October 7th and the days that followed in Israel.
On October 7, multiple large-scale terrorist attacks swept the country, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,200 Israelis. Verbit’s team has both previous expertise and an understanding of the process and technology needed to accurately transcribe survivor testimonies.
Verbit’s team felt compelled to partner with the organization EDUT 710 to preserve the detailed, firsthand accounts being collected of that day and transform them into verbatim transcripts. So far, more than 8,000 audio minutes have been transcribed pro-bono.
“Being trusted to transcribe and handle the October 7th survivor testimonies with care is nothing short of a privilege,” said Tom Livne, CEO & Founder of Verbit. “With this project, we’re able to ensure the world always remembers the details of what happened that day. We’re also committed to making the testimonies easy for the world to access with the click of a button. Completing this important preservation work pro-bono was a given for us.”
Verbit’s partnership with EDUT 710 is centered around accessibility. The witness testimonies will not only be transcribed, but also translated into multiple languages for greater accessibility and global reach.
EDUT 710 is a multimedia project being led by documentary filmmakers, historians and mental health practitioners. The professionals behind the establishment of this organization and project are committed to crafting a “non-commercialized, comprehensive and meticulously organized eyewitness testimony archive that will serve survivors and the broader public for years to come.”
You can see one example of a survivor testimony of Irena Kashi here. The testimonies are also divided into categories as well, including Kibbutzim and community villages, security and rescue forces and more.
In addition to working with EDUT 710, Verbit has also partnered with several security agencies in Israel, technology companies and Global MBA programs to provide informational materials and transcripts to them.
“The traumatic events of October 7th constitute a low point in the history of the State of Israel,” said Yair Amsterdam, President, Verbit. “Verbit’s contribution to documenting and making the details of the event accessible is historically important to tell the world, to contribute factual information as misinformation about Israel spreads online and most importantly, to make sure that we are not caught unprepared again.”
As the war in Israel is ongoing, so is this effort. Verbit’s team is expanding its circle of assistance to additional people and organizations who are volunteering and working to document and distribute informational materials. A pro-bono account has been opened within Verbit’s platform to help them transcribe informational audio and video materials in multiple languages, including Hebrew, English, Spanish and French.
If your organization is relevant and contributing to this type of project, our self-service system may be accessible to you for free. You can fill in your details via this form. We may also be able to assist you with additional tools like captioning and audio description of gathered materials to make them accessible to greater audiences.
If you’re less familiar with us, Verbit is an Israeli ‘double unicorn’ company headquartered in Israel with offices in the US, UK and Canada. Verbit’s team developed an Artificial Intelligence designed for high accuracy and performance on transcription efforts. We also offer human-generated captioning and transcription. Verbit’s technologies and platform are used by professionals across the spheres of business, legal, media, government and education.
Verbit’s team has undertaken additional work focused on the transcription of survivor testimonies, which is being conducted in partnership with the Claims Conference. The project utilizes historical archives and consists of transcribing the testimonies of Holocaust survivors in a variety of languages.