Mattat – A Meeting Place for Young Israeli Religious Women Before and After National or Military Service
Source: Mattat
Seven years after her daughter, Mattat, and niece, Kinneret, were killed in a terrorist ambush in the Etzion Bloc, Rivka Rosenfeld has established a website that brings together religious women before and after military service. This is not a solemn static memorial site but a dynamic website, which recently has become a mandatory stop for religious girls who are planning their military or national service after high school.
The Mattat website collects under one roof abundant information on associations and organizations that operate in the area of national and military service for religious girls, as well as numerous Q&A's dealing with issues arising in their various service settings. Mattat also contains more than 1,600 reports, submitted by female graduates of military and national service positions sharing their experiences for the benefit of girls about to apply for various service positions. A number of active online forums allow users to raise questions and carry on discussions relating to national and military service.
The website is equipped with an advanced user friendly search engine which allows users to find relevant information quickly and easily.
In her search for a fitting commemoration for Mattat and Kinneret, Rosenfeld harnessed her professional background as a website designer. "We decided to do something to help Orthodox girls with their service. If there is something unique about the two of them, it certainly was to share kindness with others. This site was the kind of thing that you deliberate about a lot, wondering how it will turn out. Which functions should we include? Then when everything went live, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world." Mattat has already managed to accumulate thousands of unique user logins. "This is absolutely not just a commemoration of the family. This site stands on its own, which is exactly what I wanted," says Rosenfeld.