Antisemitismus im engagierten Gespräch überwinden (Overcoming anti-semitism through Engaged Narrative Dialogue)

Training for civil society actors – and youth and adult civic educators in Berlin

Being able to engage in in-depth conversation about emotionally and ideologically charged issues is as challenging as it is important. This makes it all the more crucial to maintain and strengthen one's ability to engage in dialogue, even in difficult situations and with hard-to-reach interlocutors. This is the only way to reduce the growing tendencies toward polarization, conspiracy theories, the devaluation of groups, and anti-Semitism.

This is especially helpful for those who want to actively support social cohesion, mutual understanding and human rights: Anyone who wants to engage in difficult and committed discussions, for example in civic associations, churches, fire departments, local political associations, universities, cultural scenes, or in youth and adult education, needs to be well prepared for the dialogue in order to be able to engage in both factual and personal exchange and in effective debate, even on emotionally charged issues. The central communicative tasks here are to address emotions, clarify individual concerns, create m in mutual understanding, and address prejudice, resentment, and anti-Semitism. It is also about presenting facts and contexts and talking about shared basic values – so that we are better able to engage in dialogue and social engagement in the future.
Adressing Emotions, Promoting Understanding - Handling Resentment and Group Hate

In order to prepare civil society activists in Berlin for challenging conversations, cultures interactive e.V. offers training in dialogue skills in polarized situations characterized by ideologization, conspiracy narratives, anti-Semitism and group hatred. Together, we want to qualify facilitators and build up intervision groups for colleagues from different areas of Berlin's civil society. The main goal is to be better able to deal with heated and unfruitful discussion situations in our respective environments – and to pass on the dialogue knowledge we have gained to others. In the medium term, a certified training course for civil society facilitators in building dialogue will be developed.
This endeavor corresponds with cultures interactive's collaboration in an EU initiative on attuning "every-day extremism" – i.e. the project OppAttune.

Project duration

October 2024 - August 20205

Funding

Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt Berlin