Girls find new female Jewish role models with a new interactive game
To the creators, this is “an acknowledgement that ambition and inspiration come in many unique forms and there’s a space at the table for all talents and skills.”
By ROCKY BAIERUpdated: JULY 1, 2018 23:42(photo credit: SCREENSHOT/JEWISH INTERACTIVE)
Jewish Interactive, an educational technology non-profit, recently launched a new series of games called “The Great Wonder Women of Israel” to spotlight strong female role models and allow children to learn about them through play.“In the year of MeToo and girl power and strong women, we just wanted to emphasize the amazing Jewish women out there, and to portray all these women from our rich history in modern light,” said Anat Goodman, the director of educational technology for school integration.Featured women come from backgrounds of sports, politics and acting, and include figures such as Gal Gadot and Golda Meir. To the creators, this is “an acknowledgment that ambition and inspiration come in many unique forms and there’s a space at the table for all talents and skills.”To learn about the women, children can click through colorful slides and play games as they go. For example, players are asked to find where Gadot’s hometown is on a map or answer questions about what they learned. A voice reads through the information on each slide and cartoon superhero children guide the story along.While the project came up while Jewish Interactive (JI) was developing games for the 70th year of Israel’s independence, it quickly turned into a way to empower young girls for years to come.“There are a lot of games out there for children that help children gain certain amounts of knowledge and there aren’t a lot of games out there for children that offer a kind of emotional and intelligent growth,” said Chaykee Mor, the game’s developer.Mor was inspired by her daughter to create the game so she could have role models to look up to.“Women in video games are usually portrayed as sexy, kickass women,” Mor said, referencing fighting games where women are shown in skimpy clothing with weapons. “It’s not the kind of inspiration I would want my daughter to look up to.”According to Mor, in her game the women are portrayed as powerhouses for their talent, strength and bravery.To Dini Ginsberg, who does social media marketing for JI, these lessons are invaluable.
“It teaches the girls that you can be whoever you want to be and I think that’s something that should always be taught,” Ginsberg said.But the most important lesson is these “superwomen” could be anyone.“You could be that person,” Mor said. “Whether it be you mimicking that kind of advocacy that Gal Gadot offers or standing up for who you are or for the rights of your people like [Eurovision champ] Netta [Barzilai] it teaches young girls they are the master of their own future and they could be a wonder woman if they choose to be. It could be anybody. All these women could be anybody.”Children can play the games through the JI app or website.
