Hamas' terrorist assault on Israel on October 7, 2023 was an unprecedented attack on Israel's people and security, as a result of which Israel asserted its right to self-defense and has responded with all determination. As much as this is understandable and justified in principle, Israel's military response and the subsequent fighting in the Gaza Strip have been criticized for resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians. Nearly two million people have been displaced within the area and hundreds of thousands are facing acute food shortages.
In Germany, the Protestant church has positioned itself on Israel's side without ignoring or downplaying the suffering of the Palestinian people. At the same time, there has been a significant increase in anti-Semitism across Europe. On the other hand, some people complain that in some countries it is almost impossible to protest against the Palestinians' suffering without being called anti-Semitic.
Where do we stand on these issues as a network of lay academies, spiritual communities and other institutions of Christian education across Europe? What connects us, what separates us, on which aspects do we have common or different perspectives?
In our workshop we will be in conversation with Yariv Lapid of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and with Christian Staffa of the Protestant Academy of Berlin.
Yariv Lapid's focus has been the development of dialogue on the meaning of the Holocaust between societies with differing and at times contradictory and competing collective memories. His work is centered on education at memorial sites. After leading Yad Vashem's work with European educators, he moved on to establish the education department at the Mauthausen Memorial in Austria, later directing the Center for Humanistic Education at the Ghetto Fighters House in Israel. Since 2018 he has worked for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, first as director of the Levine Institute for Holocaust Education and currently developing the concept for a new research center on Holocaust education.
Christian Staffa is Director of Studies for Democratic Culture and Church/Education at the Protestant Academy of Berlin. His theological and educational work has for many years been centered on Jewish-Christian dialogue, on the Christian heritage of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism as well as on antigypsyism and racism. He is also the Evangelical Church in Germany's representative for the fight against anti-Semitism.
