WE ARE CONNECTED. Bilateral Work Meeting in Israel
At the beginning of March 2024, the ConAct educational team traveled to Israel for a three-day bilateral work meeting with the Israel Youth Exchange Authority and the Council of Youth Movements in Israel. The aim of the visit was to gather impressions for further work and plan future projects.
Israel after October 7
During the first two days, the team dealt with the situation in society as a result of October 7. A representative of the youth movements presented the work of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which is campaigning for the return of the hostages, at the newly created Hostages' Square. A trauma therapist then gave an insight into the extent to which society, and young people in particular, have been collectively traumatized and the challenges facing youth work to counteract post-traumatic disorders. Brigadier General (ret.) Meir Elran from the Institute for National Security Studies then attempted to point out a positive long-term perspective for the region.
In the evening a discussion took place with Ilana Tzuk, the head of the education department of Kibbutz Kfar Aza. It became clear how challenging the current work with the traumatized and still evacuated young people is, some of whom still have relatives among the hostages or were themselves kidnapped for several weeks.
Excursion to the border region with the Gaza Strip
The new ConAct colleague Tlalit Kitzoni worked at the Yad Mordechai Holocaust Museum until recently and now took the team on a tour of the former workplace and the border region with the Gaza Strip. While the kibbutz itself was successfully defended, the museum was hit by a rocket and severely damaged. The museum is now in a phase of reconstruction and redesign. In Re'im, where over 350 people were murdered at a festival, a partly organized, partly improvised memorial site has been created in recent months. [Video with trigger warning]
In Kibbutz Nir Oz, more than one in four residents was murdered or kidnapped. Many of the houses have been destroyed and the community evacuated. One of the kibbutz residents met with ConAct and gave a very personal account of the tragedy of his family and the kibbutz. His father was murdered, his mother was kidnapped and spoke shortly after her release about the attack and being held hostage in Gaza. [Video with trigger warning]
Bilateral working groups and "relaunch" in Israel
The third day of the program was dedicated to bilateral cooperation in youth exchange. Working groups planned projects such as "Meet-in-Green", the Match-Making Program and new discourse trips by "Acting Against Antisemitism" were planned. Particularly topical was the work on a toolkit for the educational treatment of October 7 and the preparation of a bilateral network seminar in Berlin.
After the launch of the initiative "WE ARE CONNECTED." in Berlin in December 2023, it was presented again by Christine Mähler and Tal Madar at a network meeting. From the field of youth exchange, Rishon Lezion and Even Yehuda presented current activities with the German partner organizations.
The event once again sent out a strong signal of solidarity in times of crisis.
WE ARE CONNECTED is both a mission and a reality these days.
