User:Gsevitt: Difference between revisions – Wikipedia

On Sep 2, 2023

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Gilad lives in Jerusalem and is married to Michal Rozen.

=== References ===

1. [Madrasa Website](link-to-madrasa-website)

2. [Source for Establishment of Nonprofit Organization](reference-to-source)

3. [Additional Source](reference-to-source)

4. [Additional Source](reference-to-source)

=== Categories ===

– Israeli Social Activists

– Educational Entrepreneurs

– Language Educators

– Jerusalem Community Leaders

[[Category:Social entrepreneurs]]

[[Category:Social activists]]

Gilad Sevitt[edit]

Social Leader and Entrepreneur

Biography[edit]

Early Life[edit]

Gilad grew up in the old neighborhoods of Katamon and Talpiot-Baka in Jerusalem. His father is of Irish origin, and his mother is of Paraguayan descent. He attended the Geulim Elementary School. Afterward, he studied at Leyada, where he excelled in Arabic and literature. His primary interests included music and ecology, and he traveled as part of an Israeli delegation to South Germany with the school orchestra. During his military service, Gilad served in Unit 8200. After completing his military service, he became interested in entrepreneurship and social activities, integrating into the ecological community in Jerusalem, organizing ecological markets, and more. Concurrently, he began intensively studying languages and learned Arabic through ongoing conversations with East Jerusalem residents. During his trip to India, he learned Hindi and also studied Spanish, a language he had heard throughout his life but never spoke.

Education[edit]

In October 2024, Gilad began his undergraduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He pursued a degree in sociology and anthropology and a general degree in humanities, with a focus on Buddhism and Arabic. He completed his degree with honors.

Foundation of Madrasa[edit]

As part of various initiatives after his military service, Gilad decided to share the Arabic he had learned from East Jerusalem residents with people in his parents’ living room. He did this for free, offering private lessons and group sessions for a fee. When he returned from India, a friend he met there suggested filming the lessons he conducted in his parents’ living room. Gilad gathered a few friends to film, edit, and design the website, and in the second half of 2014, they produced three Arabic learning videos. In December 2014, just two months after starting his undergraduate studies, Gilad launched Madrasa website.

2014-2015[edit]

After the website’s launch, Gilad received many positive responses to the videos, the website, and the initiative. In the two years following the association’s founding, he and his friends continued to publish videos on YouTube and content on their Facebook page and community facebook group. During this time, tens of thousands of people visited the Madrasa website, and a similar number watched the videos. Many people requested additional materials and expressed willingness to contribute financially to the project. This led Gilad and Daniel Dotan, his partner, to establish a nonprofit organization in 2015. Gilad produced 13 half-hour Arabic learning videos that became the foundation of the learning program.

2017-2020

In 2017, Gilad and his team decided to transform the Arabic lessons on YouTube into full online courses on an advanced learning management system. To fund this, Madrasa launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Headstart platform, successfully raising over 170,000 shekels (around 50,000 dollars) from more than 1,000 supporters. Madrasa’s online courses were built on the Open edX platform, developed by MIT graduates, allowing online collaborative learning. The transition facilitated the growth of a learning community. In 2018, Madrasa’s beginner course was integrated into the Israeli Government’s Campus IL platform run by the Israeli ministry for social equality. In November 2019, Madrasa launched another course for advanced learners on the same online platform. In December 2020, an Arabic writing course was introduced on that platform. As of August 2023, over 140,000 students are registered for Madrasa’s online courses and for the course on the Campus IL platform. All of the online courses were developed by Gilad and are completely for free.

2020-2023

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel, the organization conducted extensive online learning campaigns and activities to encourage Arabic learning during lockdowns. On March 12, 2020, at the start of the first lockdown, Gilad launched a free, mass learning campaign for spoken Arabic from home, called “Learning Arabic in…