‘Meet a Jew’ in Germany: Central Council launches project against prejudice

The Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country’s EJC affiliate, has launched the ‘Meet a Jew’ project, designed to introduce today’s Jewish life and Jewish individuals to people who have never met any Jews. Jewish Volunteers, including teenagers and adults, visit schools, universities, sport clubs and other facilities, where they talk about their life as Jews in Germany, including the kind of antisemitism many of them have been confronted with.

The project is supported by the German Ministry of Family Affairs and Women within its ‘Living Democracy’ program.

“Meet a Jew enables an open exchange and unbiased access to modern Jewish life in Germany”, the Central Council’s President Dr. Josef Schuster says. “One encounter achieves more than a thousand books. People who personally know Jews are less susceptible to stereotypes and prejudice.”

The Central Council runs more projects with the same purpose, including ‘Rent a Jew’, ‘Likrat’ and ‘Schalom Aleikum’. More than 300 German Jews aged 14 and up support those projects by becoming volunteers, by talking to people at numerous events.

At schools, the encounters ‘Meet a Jew’ offers can be part of history, ethics, religion or politics classes, or they can be added to project days education facilities organize. The program will adapt to requirements, depending on where the event takes place and who takes part.

Because of the growing antisemitism in Germany, projects like ‘Meet a Jew’ are not only good ideas, but also necessary. Hatred towards Jews comes from both the far left and the far right, as well as from within the large Muslim community in Germany. The German federal government, as well as its state governments at the regional level see a growing danger. And So does the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

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