Full Breakdown
Hackathon Honors Late Artist Aner Shapiro, Merges Art and Social Action
8/11/2026, 5:53:41 AM
Event Overview – “Creators of Impact” Hackathon
The Israel Festival’s two-day VERSE program will run on August 11-12 at the Jerusalem Campus of the Arts. As part of VERSE, an invitation-only hackathon titled “Creators of Impact” is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on August 12. Organized by the Israel Festival, the Aner Shapiro Association (the Aner Foundation), and JDC-Israel, the event will bring together ten artists and ten nonprofit organizations to co-create artistic projects that address social challenges. A jury will select one proposal to receive funding for implementation.
Honoring Aner Shapiro’s Legacy
Aner Shapiro, a Jerusalem-based composer, writer, singer and visual artist, was killed while defending others during the October 7, 2023 massacre at the Nova music festival. According to the Israel Festival, Shapiro repeatedly threw grenades back at Hamas attackers until he was fatally wounded at age 22, saving lives in the process. The hackathon is intended to extend his belief that “art can unite and heal,” using creativity as a tool for social repair.
Artists and Nonprofit Partners
The ten selected artists—multidisciplinary creator Shani Avivi, poet-choreographer Efrat Nachma, actress-theater maker Ofri Fuchs, participatory designer Shmulik Twig, rapper-musician Yitzhak Vodaj, performer Uri Duvdevani, performance artist Mohammed Abu Sarah, street artist Lior Ben Tov (Pesh), sound-artist Rotem Volk, and filmmaker Liav Kovalchuk—have histories of socially oriented work.
They will collaborate with a diverse set of NGOs, including Otot (at-risk youth), I-School (online education for disadvantaged students and war-affected families), ASSAF (refugees and asylum seekers), Blendar (Jewish-Arab cultural exchange), a Sakhnin group serving people with disabilities, Kanfey Dror (bullying prevention), Home Base (homeless-person rehabilitation through sport), Machshava Tova (technology access to reduce disparity), the Council of Youth Movements in Israel, and Ruach Oz (support for wounded IDF soldiers).
Program Highlights and Expected Outcomes
VERSE will also feature concerts by Ninet Tayeb with Berry Sakharof, Ehud Banai, Pele Ozen with Hasan MC, and Orit Tashoma, as well as a special edition of the “Jerusalem Story” podcast on August 12, where six Jerusalemites share personal narratives. Organizers aim for the hackathon’s winning project to generate a tangible artwork that tells stories, sparks discussion, and inspires concrete action on the identified social issues.
