Anti-Anti
Playing against anti-Semitism
Jewish life in Germany – this did not only exist between 1933 and 1945. Jewish life and culture has been proven to exist on German soil for 1700 years. And thus Judaism is far older than, for example, Friedrich Nietzsche, the invention of the deposit bottle or the Cologne Cathedral – together! Jews and Germans thus lived closely together. But most of the time, the weakest in society and the outsiders have been made scapegoats for self-managed mismanagement.
This is how anti-Semitism came into the world… which is unacceptable in modern societies! He can neither be excused nor swept under the carpet. It can only be countered with education and enlightenment. And that’s why we launched our Anti-Anti program: the Jewish Week Dresden plays against anti-Semitism. To this end, we develop educational projects, go to schools, cooperate with Jewish-German artists, develop our own film series and thus impart the knowledge to protect oneself against partly simple-minded, partly devious, old and new anti-Semitism.
Anti-Anti – you hear from us!
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With the support of the Jewish Music Institute (JMI) London
Since the festival was founded, important Jewish artists and cultural workers from all over the world have come to the Saxon capital every year. In addition to their artistic activities, almost all of them also have many years of pedagogical experience: e.g. in the implementation of workshops, the management of master classes or the organization of concerts in schools.
With the newly developed program Games against Anti-Semitism , we want to set an example and actively show the numerous opportunities for cultural education and exchange that arise during our festival to children, young people and disadvantaged people. Our goal is to promote contact between the festival artists and those who would not normally attend concerts or theatrical performances.
Playing against anti-Semitism has four goals:
- promote cultural education for children,
- bringing young people and the disadvantaged into contact with cultural diversity,
- educate about anti-Semitism,
- to inform about the essential and sustainable role that Jewish culture plays and has played in Europe.
Like all racism, anti-Semitism is often nourished by a lack of familiarity, by fear of the other, by mistrust of the unknown. In fact, the rhetoric used in the past (and not only) against Jews is identical to that used today against other “others.” Today, many Germans have hardly any everyday contact with real Jews. Much of what they learn comes from mass and social media or from family circles. Our project is therefore aimed at breaking through these walls of unfamiliarity. We bring young people and children – but also older people – into direct contact with Jewish culture and its cultural workers.
An hour or afternoon of building and playing instruments, for example, grooving, singing and clapping during an interactive concert, learning traditional Jewish dances or taking part in a storytelling lesson, is not just fun. It is also a gentle and effective way to educate against anti-Semitism in a non-threatening environment.
Hopefully, all of this will arouse your curiosity about Jewish life, its long, historical, once everyday and everywhere in Europe presence – and at the same time shows that despite the tragedy of the Holocaust, Jewish culture remains a joyful and real unity in the present.
