Learning from the Past, Acting for the Future – European Citizens Stand Up in Front of Injustices
The project “Learning from the Past, Acting for the Future – European Citizens Stand Up in Front of Injustices” was coordinated by the Intercultural Institute Timisoara in partnership with Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea from Italy, Tsentar za Mezhduetnicheski Dialog i Tolerantnost Amalipe from Bulgaria and Big Picture Association from Poland. The project was co-funded by the European Union through the Europe for Citizens Programme.
The aim of this project was to raise the awareness about the need to stand up against injustice, to act for human rights and to make sure that history does not repeat itself. Teachers from 4 countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Italy) have been involved in a process aiming at developing their competences to teach about the Holocaust and human rights in an interdisciplinary approach – on the one hand to draw lessons from the past and apply them to present days’ realities, on the other hand to understand the mechanisms for protecting human rights that exist today and how the fact that they did not exist in the past allowed for such atrocities to happen.
The main activities included the organization of 4 national seminars in 2021, in each of the 4 countries involved in the project, and one international conference in Poland, in 2022, bringing together representatives of all the countries involved in the project. Throughout the project, the teachers were supported to develop curricular and extra-curricular activities with their students based on an interdisciplinary methodology that combines Holocaust education with human rights education and intercultural education. The teachers engaged their students in local projects, to research the past and to contribute to a democratic and equitable future. Some teachers engaged in collaboration with teachers from other countries and created opportunities for their students to engage in online peer learning processes. Policy proposals have been submitted to local and national authorities to argue the importance of mainstreaming this interdisciplinary approach.
A Handbook for teachers called Learning from the Past, Acting for the Future. An Interdisciplinary Approach to Holocaust, Human Rights and Intercultural Education developed within this project is available online at: https://www.intercultural.ro/en/handbook-holocaust-hr-intercultural-education/
Teachers can find in this handbook: an argumentation of the need for an interdisciplinary approach of Holocaust education, human rights education and intercultural education; an explanation of the ways in which this interdisciplinary approach can lead to the development of competences for democratic culture; an overview of the methodologies which are best suited for an interdisciplinary approach; a set of educational activities that can be used by the teachers with their students; as well as recommendations for further reading.
The activities in this project were co-funded by The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights.
RELATION – Research, Knowledge, Education against Antisemitism
This project aims to create an innovative strategy for combating antisemitism that starts from a better knowledge of the Jewish history/traditions as part of the common history/traditions, and puts in place a set of educational activities in Italy, Spain, Romania and Belgium as well as online actions in order to tackle this phenomenon. Initially, research will be conducted in order to map the state of the art, in each participating country, of antisemitic feelings and anti-Jewish prejudices/bias. The methodology used as framework for the research activities and data analysis (WP2) will rely on Standpoint Feminism and Critical Discourse Analysis, which foster reflexivity and critical thinking, deconstruction of dominant antisemitic discourses and set for the alternative and counter-narratives. This methodology will be integrated by a web monitoring process. Given the lack of studies on the intersection of antisemitism and sexism, and the perception of antisemitism by Jewish Women (Gold, 1997; Stoegner 2020), our research might be able to fill some of the gaps in this field and inspire targeted campaigns.
Based on the research, educational activities for pupils and training activities for teachers will be developed. The project will mix formal and non-formal education, following the principles of human rights education of the Council of Europe and the European Union in the field of youth and the Guidelines for Policymakers developed by UNESCO and OSCE to address antisemitism through Education (2018). The pedagogical strategy is based on two aspects: a) the comparison on concrete cases of prejudice at the level of the teachers and b) the active participation of the students also through a peer to peer approach.
An online awareness raising campaign tailored for young people will be carried out to support them to substantiate their point of view on antisemitism and other forms of prejudice, intolerance and hate speech. The storytelling, that will be used both for pupils and for young adults activities, will contribute to raise awareness and reflect upon different cultural and religious backgrounds, bias and understandings.
The model and methodology used within RELATION project will be compiled in a book that will be published on paper and online and a handbook which will provide guidance for transferring the methodology in other EU countries.
Project duration: Jan 2022-Jan 2024
Partners:
Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea – CDEC, Italy (coordinator)
Fondazione Hallgarten-Franchetti Centro Studi Villa Montesca, Italy
Intercultural Institute Timisoara, Romania
Universita Degli Studi Di Milano, Italy
Universita Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore, Italy
Comunitat Jueva Bet Shalom De Catalunya, Spain CEJI – A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe, Belgium
SHIELD
SHIELD is a project funded by the European Union’s Internal Security Fund aimed at protecting places of worship from the risks of violent extremism. Implementing risk factors’ analysis, SHIELD is to enhance security postures at places of worship through improving the coordination, cooperation, and communication between law enforcement agencies, public authorities, faith leadership and congregations.
The combination of the Shield protective and risk factors’ analysis brings together stakeholders and target groups to develop new measures to ensure the safeguard of these places and the resilience of believers with different faiths.
SHIELD’s consortium is made up of 18 partners from 10 EU countries, engaged for two years: from January 2022 to December 2023.
The Intercultural Institute Timisoara is one of the project partners.
SHIELD project foresees the following working packages (WP):
- analysis of critical points, resilience activities and risks. The tasks of WP2 activities will lay the foundations for the definition of prevention and mitigation strategies, to be identified in WP3;
- identification of safety and security measures. The aim of WP3 is to identify technologies and procedures that can meet the needs and mitigate the vulnerabilities outlined in WP2;
- WP4 aims at developing training sessions and simulations to test, validate and evaluate the methodological, technological and procedural solutions identified in WP3;
- the dissemination and communication plan and WP5 will ensure to reach and involve the stakeholders and target groups to promote and ensure the sustainability of the project outcomes.
The project outputs will be publications, as factsheet and recommendations, and meetings, as workshops and conferences, to raise, in the target groups, the awareness and the information on the practical measures and tools for increasing the protection of places of worship.
More details about the project are available here: https://shieldproject.eu/.
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