The EJF Leadership Program at Paideia - the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Stockholm
The European Jewish Fund Leadership Program at Paideia aims to educate activists and professionals to assist in the renaissance and renewal of European Jewish culture, a vision shared by the European Jewish Fund and Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.
The program provides participants with both the knowledge and the tools they need to become driving forces in strengthening Jewish communities throughout Europe. The knowledge and substance for this training is imparted through intensive literary courses which are the wellsprings of Jewish civilization. The tools are reinforced through the hands-on Paideia program and oriented towards serving their respective communities.
The program thus enables young Jewish leaders and professionals from all over Europe to return to their countries equipped with new knowledge, new insight and new networks, and with concrete projects ready for implementation in their respective communities. It also entails a strengthened opportunity for these professionals and communal workers to take part in and to shape the conceptual currents throughout the European Jewish community.
The European Jewish Fund Leadership Program at Paideia runs annual educational projects as Jewish Professional track and Paideia Project Incubator from 2007.
These projects representing successful efforts of EJF and Paideia to support the Jewish youth in their keen yearning for Jewish Tradition.
Jewish Professional Track (One-Year Program)
Paideia Jewish Professional Track is a one-year program, designed for fellows pursuing Jewish communal work as educators and organizational leaders. The program prepares fellows for a service career in Jewish life by providing them with Jewish substance, administrative skills training and applied management experience, helping them to hone the skills they will need to succeed as Jewish community professionals after they return to their home countries.
The Paideia Project-Incubator (Summer Program)
The Paideia Project-Incubator is a ten-day interactive workshop conducted each summer. The Incubator seeks to enable activists who have acquired knowledge of Jewish content to develop and implement new initiatives in their communities.
Each applicant suggests a concrete and feasible project, involving Jewish culture in Europe (either in one or several locales), and needs to develop this project during the Incubator and afterwards.
With the generous support of the European Jewish Fund, as a part of the EJF Leadership Program at Paideia, the on-site part of the Paideia Project Incubator 2009 was concluded on August 12th, after ten days of intensive sessions. The program was a great success, with creativity sparkling during the entire sojourn.
During the Incubator, the participants were provided hands-on tools for realizing the projects in their home countries, while simultaneously broadening their cultural and intellectual horizons through the study of Jewish textual sources.
The program included:
Project Development Lectures: Seven lectures giving tools, exercises and a step-by-step basis for project development. The lectures' topics were: Project Components & Case Statement; Budget; Resource Development; Technology Literacy; Application Writing; Presentation Skills; and Evaluation.
Leadership Capacities Workshops: Four such workshops, dealing with: Leadership Vision & Values; Leadership Precepts & Practices; Cooperation; and Sustainable Leadership.
Jewish Studies Sessions: Three such sessions, including Hevruta studies, dealing with Jewish Culture as a Culture of Learning and with Shabbat.
Peer Groups and Networking Sessions: Two peer group meeting, and three networking sessions designated at encouraging cooperations and learning methodologies of structuring collaborations.
Individual Tutoring: The main core of the program. Each participant received four one-hour-long personal meetings with Faculty tutor, who worked with the participant step-by-step in developing the project and implementing the tools learnt in the lectures with regard to the specific project. All participants could also receive individual Jewish Content and curricular counseling from the Incubator's Jewish Studies lecturers.
During the program, the participants had the opportunity to meet various representatives of Jewish organizations and foundations, who presented their organizations and discussed the participants' projects with them. The participants could experience various modes of presenting their projects to funds and organizations (oral presentation, phone conversation, poster exhibition, catalogue writing, video filming etc.) and receive feedback on their work.
The final day especially provided the participants the opportunity of receiving feedback and advice on their ideas from representatives of various different foundations and organizations working in the European Jewish context – through pitching their project in front of a panel, by getting to know how the foundations work, in individual conversations with the representatives and through conference calls. The panel included representatives from the European Jewish Fund, The Rothschild Foundation Europe, The Pears Foundation, the Jewish Community of Stockholm, the Schusterman Foundation Center for Leadership Initiatives and the Claes Groschinsky Memorial Foundation. The L.A. Pincus Fund for Jewish Education in the Diaspora participated over the telephone.
For the participants to successfully implement the tools they have acquired during the Project Incubator, the projects are offered to be tutored continuously throughout the coming year. In order to simultaneously capitalize from the Project Incubator staff members' skills as project developers and from knowledge about local conditions, the projects have the option to be coached both on-line by the Incubator staff, and by local tutors (as suits each project's needs).
Paideia brought on board the knowledge and experience of a number of additional organizations in this, the fourth Project-Incubator. They are: Jumpstart (LA), ROI Community and CLI (US/Israel), Nachshonim (Israel/FSU) and JHub (UK). They all provided their assistance and staff time on a pro-bono basis to the great benefit of the Project-Incubator participants and staff alike.
The "Shevet Achim" Project is jointly run by the Israeli Government and the European Jewish Fund.
"Shevet Achim" was initiated by Minister Yuli Edelstein and the ministry of Diaspora affairs and is implemented together with the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassies in Europe.
Each month, the program introduces a Minister of the Israeli Government or a senior Israeli public figure to the representatives of a particular European Jewish community. The Jewish community participating that month is hooked up to the Israeli Minister through a Video Conference.
The purpose of this program is to reach and strengthen the ties with the brothers and sisters in the Diaspora by learning more about Jewish life in the European countries participating.
As known, European Jewry faces difficult challenges in trying to preserve Jewish life and the strong connection between Jews and our Heritage. This difficulty is sometimes compounded when individuals find themselves constrained to defend the actions of the State of Israel against hostile and vicious propaganda frequently fueled by the media.
They believe that these meetings strengthen the participating communities' spirit and enhance their ability to face these challenges. They have the unusual and very personal opportunity to learn first hand what the Israelis feel and think and to ask questions which are troubling them. Through these meetings the two communities--Israel and the Diaspora-- learn how to cooperate better and work together to achieve the shared goals.
The new and wondrous technology available today gives a tremendous opportunity to keep in touch and to share information and impressions between one end of the world and the other. It is clear that one should mobilize this technology and to take advantage of this opportunity.
One of the ways to do so is by making these discussions available to any one wishing to view these new and interesting encounters on the internet. They need only connect to www.Leadel.net/live
The European Jewish Fund has been a wonderfully cooperative and innovative partner and creators of this project thank Dr. Moshe Kantor, President of the Fund, for helping to make this project happen.
As the minister of Diaspora affairs, minister Edelstein hosted all three meetings and shared his views and values with all participants before answering the questions they prepared
The first meeting was conducted with the Stockholm Jewish community at the Paideia institute. Important issues such as anti Semitism and the press were discussed during the meeting and all the participants felt that is was an important experience.
The second meeting was held in Budapest and leaders of the community were present together with the Israeli Ambassador to Hungary. They discussed the vision of the Israeli Political Leadership on Israel -
Diaspora relations and about the ways is Israel contributing to the struggle of Diaspora Jewry.
The third meeting was hosted in Rome and it was the first time meeting had an interpreter assisting. It was also the first time that three different countries participated in the meeting when Mr. Robert Singer, the Director General & CEO, World ORT joined in London and greeted all participants, due to the meeting being held in on the ORT premises in Rome.
All heads of the community such as Claudia De Benedetti – Vice President - UCEI, Rabbi Roberto Della Rocca and others together with Israeli officials stationed in Rome attended and spoke mainly about joint efforts in "Hasbara", and the Jewish leaders' desire to cooperate with the Israeli government on strengthening Jewish Identity and educational projects.
Their strong believe that this program benefits each participating community and creates an appealing and personal channel for a more meaningful relationship with the Israeli people and its elected government.
The goal is to conduct such a dialog with very Jewish community in Europe and to involve each of the cabinet ministers.
The Third EJF Art Forum "Jewish Shtetl Revival" Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations and Communities
The Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations and Communities has developed a program called Jewish Shtetl Revival to support modern Jewish art by fostering the creativity of children and young adults.
The ultimate goal of the program is to bring Jewish art back into the lives of Jewish communities within the context of global culture and to strengthen Jewish identity of the participants, Jewish children ages 14-18 from different Jewish
communities of the FSU and Europe, and their bonds with Jewish heritage, through artistic expression.
During this program youth from different communities visit several towns in Belarus, famous for their Jewish history and culture, where they become acquainted with shtetl history and the everyday life of the Jewish people who lived in the Pale of Settlement.
One of the many important sites the children visit is Vitebsk, the town where Mark Chagall, world famous artist was born and lived. They are taken to his house-museum, the Vitebsk state museum in honor of Mark Chagall and the exhibition of I. Pen – Chagall's first teacher.
The result of this project in 2007 and 2008 was the establishment of contacts between communities in the field of modern Jewish arts, propaganda of the Jewish arts and its contribution into the world culture, improvement of the professional level of the project participants, publishing of the album, as well as creation of the European Jewish children's arts gallery.
This program runs successfully since 2007 and the willing of the community is to continue to provide the young members of the community with this unique education and knowledge opportunity to search after their Jewish roots and to share Jewish culture and arts from their own countries, their knowledge and experience.
In the summer of 2009 the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) organized its 25th Summer University, the single largest European Jewish event to occur on an annual basis, in Istanbul, Turkey hosting 500 Jewish students and young adults from 42 countries in Europe, Israel North America and Australia. In cooperation with its Turkish member Union – Turkish Union of Jewish Students (TUJS), EUJS hosted a weeklong event that offered a cutting edge program and activities, offering a series of lectures and workshops addressing a variety of broad issues such as; leadership, study abroad programs in Israel, trends of global anti-Semitism and Israel advocacy.
As Summer University for the first time in the history of European Jewry, EUJS organized a milestone event by gathering 500 Jewish activists in a Muslim country, running a program which raised the urgent and critically important theme of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue.
The concluding speech was given by the President of the Turkish Jewish Community, Mr. Sylvio Ovadya.
This one-of-a-kind event provided a unique opportunity for around 500 young European Jews to interact, while attending a week-long educational program, allowing students to raise and voice their concerns to a roster of internationally renowned speakers, ranging from political representatives, leaders of international organizations, academics, and religious and cultural figures.
The goal of the Turkey Jewish Community was to create an initiative where the Community Youth will have a special possibility to explore and develop its identity, while absorbing Judaism with its different aspects such as history, religion, culture, literature, poetry and philosophy.
In order to realize this vision Hadracha Seminars were organized twice a year with an up to 120 participants – out of which is the Hadracha group selected.
These seminars are a living laboratory for young people of the community future generation who are going to serve community and keep this project going. The other main goal of this project is to remind that Jewish identity is a whole entity with its religious education, with its music, literature, its intellectuals, its obscure periods and its philosophy.
The creators of the Hadracha Seminars with the generous help of EJF wish to fulfill the lack of information in the field of Jewish Education, to advance one step towards intellectuality. The lecturers are various and "hand picked" from such a broad perspective.
In addition to the group's main concerns, Turkish Jewish Community also planning to add personal improvement programs which will bring to light young people's leadership qualities.
One of the missions of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania is to supply every Jew from Romania with that "little bit of Judaism" that they need. The final purpose of all the educational programs that are organized by the Rabbinical Chancellery and by FEDROM's National Talmud Torah Program is to strengthen the identity of every participant in these actions, thus strengthening each community, as well as the Jewry as a whole. These programs organized regionally and nationally -represented the core of the Jewish educational activity and success, complying in this way with the particularity of the Jewish community from Romania that is spread in more than 40 places with larger and smaller communities.
This program is meant to be a comeback to the Jewish roots, in order to discover there the knowledge and power needed for a Jewish behavior in the 21st century, by the discovery and living of the Joy of being Jewish and by assuming Jewish identity through the observance of millenary traditions.
The EJF generous support allowed the FEDROM to open a unique summer school (SIHA) to participants from Romania and Moldova in two special modules that approach a large series of topics, from religious issues to modern Israel, from the fundamental values and principles of Judaism to means to strengthen and revive the communal life that is both modern and rooted in tradition. It ranges from the Jewish holidays to the present dilemmas of keeping one's identity in. a more and more laic world. Everything is focused around living and observing Shabbat as one of the basic features of Judaism. This program is meant to become a way of getting to know various aspects of Judaism, to offer models of approaching Jewish traditions and to help the participants define their own way of perceiving and assuming their Jewish heritage in the context of the modern world and of the increased danger of assimilation.
Beth Aviv is a Jewish school, based in Brussels, and accredited and subsidized by the French Community of Belgium. It focuses on kindergarten and primary school only, and as a Jewish school is teaching Hebrew, the culture and history of the community and the origins. This all helps to build a strong Jewish identity for in a spirit of tolerance and pluralism.
Beth Aviv School welcomes children from the age of 18 months to 12 years. It is a real "house of life" where each child can develop at his or her own pace. It has a warm family atmosphere - a place where it feels good to grow up and where learning rhymes with fun.
The school's educational method is characterized by an emphasis on child-centered educational method and self-directed activities.
The support of EJF enabled Beth Aviv School to rebuild and to renovate the classrooms for Hebrew and Judaism studies. The reconstruction works allowed building a new spacious classroom fully equipped with the materials, books, computers – everything that creates a special supportive atmosphere for children to learn and develop their knowledge, to research and study. This place dedicated entirely to this purpose was called: "THE JEWISH HISTORY LABORATORY".
As one of the implementation of the project the agreement with The Centre of Training and Professional Development of Moldova was made which represents one of the Jewish nongovernment organizations in the community. This organization is operating in the field of education for more than ten years; it specializes in different psychological and professional trainings and Jewish informal education.
The support of EJF for this project helped to attract the attention of the community and other educational structures to the life of the Jewish lyceums and schools. Also the project has found its reverberation in the mass media and was highly appreciated.
LATVIA
Each child has a name
Non-governmental organizations, both Jewish and non-Jewish, do a lot of work in order to preserve the memory of Holocaust in Latvia. The monuments are being established on the places of mass extermination, the elderly people are being surveyed about their experience in surviving in ghetto, the memoirs are published. Within its goal of fostering tolerance and preventing anti-Semitism association "Shamir" in 2007 has launched educational project of teaching the Holocaust in middle schools.
According to national census of population held in 1935, 17,000 out of 93,000 Latvian Jews were children in the age from 1 month to 16 years. Presumably most of them have been perished during Holocaust. But as usually there is not so much information about children – the youngest children didn't have any documents at all, a lot of children were not bringing the documents with them – they were wiped out by the Holocaust wave and their names remained unknown.
The aim of the project "To remember not to happen again" is to create a database of children names perished during Holocaust in Latvia. The goal of association "Shamir" is to find and process the names and information about children that have perished in Holocaust in Latvia during 1941-1945 time period, and to present the database to Latvian society and other stakeholders. The database will exist in the form of file and website.
The project is aimed to raise awareness about the events of the past in order to prevent them in the future. The information about the children perished in Holocaust will make the events of the past more visible and tangible. The translated memoirs will bring unknown information about events that happened in Riga 70 years ago. The Intergenerational dialogues will be enriched and all ways will be made to ensure the history memory is transferred to the younger generation. The website will be a tool for dissemination among younger generation which prefers to gain information through Internet. The memoirs of Holocaust survivor will bring more confidence to the historical events.
GREAT BRITAIN
Rights for Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries
The issue of 'refugees' raised within the context of the Middle East, invariably referred to 'Palestinian refugees', not Jews displaced from Arab countries. Neither the mass violations of human rights nor the displacement of Jews from Arab countries has ever been adequately addressed by the international community.
These Jews were victims of the struggle of the Arab world against the creation of the State of Israel. Upon the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, the status of Jews in Arab countries worsened dramatically. Coinciding with every Arab-Israeli War, a consistent, wide-spread pattern of persecution and mass violations of human rights developed against Jewish minorities in most Arab countries.
Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) with the support of EJF organized series of programs in two locations – In Strasbourg, when the European Union is in session; and in Rome, the capital of Italy.
On June 16, 2009, the first-ever Hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies addressed the subject of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
Testifying at the Hearing was Canadian Member of Parliament and former Justice Minister, the Honorable Irwin Cotler who stated that: "The time has come to return Jewish refugees from Arab countries to the Middle East narrative from which they have been expunged these past sixty years." He added, "This is not just a case of justice delayed, but justice denied."
This Hearing followed the much-anticipated foreign policy speech given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 14, 2009 wherein he reminded the world of the "hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees who left their homes and belongings in Arab countries."
Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress stated that, "The forgotten story of the forced exodus of Jewish refugees from Arab states must be on the agenda during any Middle East peace talks. Many of these refugees built their new homes in European communities. We therefore call upon the European institutions, and upon European governments to raise their voice and demand that historical justice be done. We commend the Italian Parliament for addressing this issue in a serious manner and encourage other states in Europe to do so as well."
The message that Jewish refugees are now a 'core issue' to the Middle-East peace process was recently reinforced by Israel's new ambassador to the United States. In an interview with Reuters on June 16, 2009, Ambassador Michael Oren contended that: "The refugee issue, both the Palestinian refugee issue, as well as the Jewish refugee issue -- the Jews who were forced out of Arab lands -- those are core issues."
Other activities that took place:
Public Hearing in the Official Parliamentary Buildings: Working in conjunction with elected officials of the respective Parliaments, JJAC convened an official 'Public Hearing' at which expert witnesses and victims testified. There were invited elected members of all parliamentary bodies; Governments officials; foreign diplomats, international NGOs, the media, the EJC and other Jewish communal leadership;
Select number of high level meetings with senior political leaders, government officials, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others who are involved in representing the EU or their respective country in Middle East affairs;
Media Coverage: Generate media interest and coverage through the Public Hearing; Press Conferences with newsworthy speakers and pronouncements; interviews/personal testimonies; press packages;
There are two active Jewish Communities in Norway located in Oslo and Trondheim, however only 40% percent of all Jewish population of the country are members of these communities. . Assimilation, a diverse and hard-to-travel landscape of the country and low number of population as oppose to the large territory, where most of the communal centers are dispersed widely through small towns, complicates building a strong community and maintaining its traditional and cultural life.
The "Chibur" project was built to help the Jews in Norway find their way to the Jewish community, to connect them to each other and to fulfill their cultural and traditional needs.
The projects allows to get a better contact with the Jews living in Norway far from Jewish community centers, inform about them Jewish community activities, map the needs people may have concerning their Jewish life, create various programs that would be suitable for many. Chibur project offers also gatherings and celebrations through the country, outside usual community centers, organizing through the country seminars, Bnei Akiva meetings and Summer Camp, sponsoring the high cost for travel and offering a hostelling solutions for those who whish to join Jewish activities in other city, offer special programs for Israeli members of the community – as Israeli cultural events and gatherings.
Chibur project established a Internet Cheider program – which enables to distant members of Jewish community to take part in Jewish studies in convenient way.
PORTUGAL
Jewish Education and Youth
The Jewish Community of Lisbon (CIL) is the heir of one of Europe's oldest and most symbolical Sephardic Jewish Communities. It was founded during in the Middle Ages and was abolished by the Inquisition in the 15th century. The community was reestablished in the early 1800's.
Since then, it has been a very small, struggling community, only enlarged during World War II due to the influx of European Jews on their way to emigration throughout the world. During the second half of the 20th century it has suffered serious mutations due to progressive assimilation, aging, and emigration.
The main goal of the project "Jewish Education and Youth" supported by the European Jewish Fund is to create a dynamic educational program which provides Jewish Education with emphasis on the young members of the community, in order to build and develop their Jewish identity, and prevent further assimilation.
The non-formal education provided by Organized Youth Movement (Dor Chadash) based on a classical model used in many countries, of educational self governing - the principle of education through their peers (madrichim), personal example, thus guaranteeing continuity and stimulating new generations through systematic, non-formal educational activities.
The contents of the activities are focused on, and include subjects such as Judaism and Jewish identity, Contemporary Judaism, Jewish Religion and Culture, Zionism, socializing in community life, general culture, recreation and entertainment.
These activities also count with the cooperation, support and guidance of the Formal Education department (Moré) and the Rabbi.
The children are organized by age groups, with specific activities for each group.
The groups of formal education were organized in addition, the classes are held in formal classroom environment, in the Synagogue Library and main office.
SERBIA
Significant Jews in Serbian History
Currently anti-Semitism in Serbia occurs predominantly as an ideological safe-haven of marginal neo-Nazi, clerical-fascist or xenophobic groups. Their explanations stating that all difficulties that a country in transition, like Serbia is facing can be attributed to the Jews is not readily met with acceptance among Serbs. Cooking in this tightly sealed "pot", the young people often ask themselves who it is that is to blame for the wars, struggles, poverty and suffering that have been looming over Serbia over the past two decades. And often the answer that they get is the one that we Jews least like to hear, and this answer is often supported with the "strong argument", the ever-present reminder of Jewish origin of some politicians that were very high-profiled in the media during the war conflicts (Madeleine Albright, James Rubin, Wesley Clark, Richard Holbrooke, etc.) who were presented in the media close to the regime, and greatly perceived, as Serb enemies.
The mission of the project "Significant Jews in Serbian History" is to remind Jews of Serbia, young and those in more mature age that they are fully entitled to be proud of what their compatriots in Serbia had done for the benefit of the country.
During the first stages the project associates, mainly students are engaged in collection of data by searching archives in the related (scientific, military, political, cultural, sports) institutions, they undertook interviews of witnesses and family members and relatives of outstanding Serbian Jews, collected photographs and other documents.
The collected data is classified, processed and selected chronologically, by historical periods, etc. This task is performed by the Editorial Board consisting of experts in different areas in which the outstanding Serbian Jews were active providing contribution to the overall development of Serbia.
The second stage includes the writing of texts and their design which, again, would be the task of the Editorial Board. The texts are going to be graphically designed and a monograph printed. Before the publication of the monograph, it would be presented to the electronic and printed media and the interested scientific and cultural institutions.
