ESJF and Centropa are thrilled to announce that entries are now open for our International Youth Competition on “Local Jewish cemeteries”, co-funded by the European Commission.

We hereby invite students from across our project countries (Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine), to send us creative projects telling the story of their local Jewish cemeteries, in one of three categories:

- Movies

- Cemetery profiles on Google Sites

- Online brochures

We promised that we would bring you something exciting soon. Well this year's CSA is not cancelled, it’s just gone virtual! We are going to have online sessions, great speakers and bring Vienna to your living room or balcony or wherever you will be joining. Not only we designed an online CSA for you, but we have an optional Border Jumping Program too, so you get to meet and network internationally while you can create cross-cultural projects.

26 teachers came together from 16 schools in 14 countries to our 8th professional development seminar for European Jewish schools in Budapest, Hungary! Teachers learned about the Centropa database and our materials, attended workshops and presentations about new methodologies and tools, disvocered the Jewish neighborhood of Budapest, and had a special visit to the Dohany synagogue and the recently restored Rumbach synagogue, and met our Café Centropa Budapest members, Judit Kinszki, Olga Sólyom, and Vera Szekeres-Varsa.

Centropa has brought together 72 teachers from 15 countries for our annual Summer Academy in Berlin, Germany between 8-15 July where we used the city as our classroom to learn about 20th century history, the Holocaust and civil society. During the intense 7-day program, our teachers visited key historic sites, listened to expert lectures and panel discussions, met Kindertransport refugees, and learned from each other about classroom-tested lesson plans and projects involving Centropa.

Our seminar "Teaching Jewish history, the Holocaust, and inter-religious tolerance in the Western Balkans" was organized for 40 educators from Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and North Macedonia. During the seminar, participants learned about the Jewish history of Maribor and Lendava through expert lectures, walking tours and museum visits, met members of the Jewish community, watched Centropa films from the region, and listened presentations about how our veteran teachers use them in class. 

The working languages of the seminar were Slovenian and English.

For our 11th Trans.History seminar, we brought together 50 teachers fromUkraine, Moldova and Germany to discuss and share best practices on commemorating Jewish history and culture, and promoting active citizenship in educational contexts.

Thanks to our special guests: Marina London of Beit Grand, Vladislav Hrynevich, regional manager of UJE, Jens Kraus-Massé from the German Embassy Kyiv, and Anatoli Podolski and Maksim Gon for welcoming and speaking to our group.

25 Polish and 5 German teachers explored Centropa's teaching tools, met with academics and journalists such as Konstanty Gebert, attended a Shabbat dinner, engaged in workshops, and visited the State Museum at Majdanek at the site of the former German concentration camp. Together, participants developed lesson plans that they will use in their classrooms. 

The seminar was organized by Centropa, in partnership with the Galicia Jewish Museum Krakow, Friedrich Ebert Foundation Warsaw, and Teatr N.N. Lublin.

34 teachers came together from 16 countries to our 7th professional development seminar for European Jewish schools in Istanbul, Turkey! Teachers learned about the Centropa database and our materials, attended workshops and presentations about new methodologies and tools, disvocered the old Jewish neighborhood of Istanbul, and attended a wonderful welcome dinner in the Neve Shalom synagogue, where they were welcomed by the rabbi. 

35 participants from the Western Balkans attended our 12th regional teacher training seminar “Teaching Jewish History, the Holocaust and Interreligious Tolerance in the Western Balkans" at Cultural Center Parobrod in Belgrade, December 14-16.  

Centropa Budapest celebrated Hanukkah on the 7th of December. 

Thanks for all teachers, students and our interviewees who came and spent this evening with us. We played a Hanukkah quiz, lit the candles, and Vera Jónás entertained us with excellent music.

The event was supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Claims Conference. Thanks for Szilvi Czingel for organizing this event, and Róbert Bácsi for taking photos.

We wish all of our friends happy holidays and a great new year!