The aim of our Common Ground program is to bring together students who have very different social and cultural background, in order to fight the natural segregation which is present in Hungary today. In the framework of the program, Roma and non-Roma, Jewish and non-Jewish, Budapest and countryside students meet, get to know each other, and create a project together which they can share in their communities.
Between 5-12 July, we organized our annual Centropa Summer Academy for the 11th time. This year, we used Berlin as our classroom, and learned about Jewish history, the Third Reich, the Cold War and Civil Society - by touring streets and museums, listening to experts and panel discussions, and working on lesson plans.
83 dedicated teachers came together from 19 countries to learn, connect, share, and take part in an experience of lifetime which they can bring back to their students.
On June 13, Centropa proudly presented its new film „Zahor - to remember“ at a movie screening at the CityDome film theater in Sinsheim, Germany to 150 invited guests. Special guests included Dr. Menachem Mayer and his family from Israel, Consul General of Israel Sandra Simovich, Michael Schreiner from the Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Dietmar Hopp, Peter Hofmann, president of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Ilay Elmkies, the narrator of the film.
This year we organized our video competition "In the footstep of Jewish memories" for the sixth time, and it was the second year that students of the Visegrád countries could compete together. We received more than 30 videos from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, whih were evaluated by an international jury. The videos were so great that in each category, shared prizes were awarded.
Impressions from our annual Macedonian teacher-training seminar, which brought together 52 participants from Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, in Skopje on May 4-6, 2018, thanks to the generous support of the Claims Conference, the Holocaust Fund of the Jews from Macedonia, the US Embassy and the Austrian Embassy.
On May 3rd, our Café Centropa Vienna members visited Eisenstadt, a small town with a rich Jewish history. The first stop was the old Jewish cemetery that was used between 1679 and 1875. After that, we visited the Jewish Museum itself and the small synagogue that is placed inside of the museum. Special thanks to Johannes Reiss, the director of the museum, who was very kind to us and guided our group. We closed the trip with a lunch together.
On April 17th, 2018 the Centropa exhibition "Lost Sephardic World" was openend in the Serbian city of Niš. Exhibition was shown in the grand hall of the First Niš Grammar School “Stevan Sremac”. Around hundred people attended the opening of the exhibition. We were happy to welcome a delegate from the Ministry of education-department Niš, a delegate from the City Hall, the professors from the school, media representatives, as well as parents and students.
Our third seminar in Lviv between 3-5. April brought together 50 educators, civil society activists and journalists from Ukraine, Moldova, Germany and Poland. During the seminar, teachers presented their projects and how they have used the Centropa films in educational contexts. The seminar also offered four different one-day workshops to choose from, historical lectures and the presentation of our exhibition „The Ukrainian Jewish Family Album”. In addition, we awarded the winners of our annual Youth Competition.
As traditionally, we organized our 12th Seder event with our Café Centropa members in Vienna.
On March 15th, our newest exhibition “The Lost Sephardic World of the Western Balkans” was opened in the Children Cultural Center of Belgrade. The exhibition opening was organized in cooperation with the Serbian Education Ministry, kindly underwritten by IHRA and the US Embassy in Serbia. Speeches were given by Biljana Stojanovic of the Education Ministry, Kyle Scott, US Ambassador to Serbia, Alona Fischer-Kamm, Israeli Ambassador to Serbia, the Deputy head of the Jewish Community of Belgrade, the Deputy Director of the Children Cultural Center, and Fabian Rühle from Centropa.
