Bürgerhaus Bennohaus in Israel

13 years cooperation of Bürgerhaus Bennohaus and Revivim High School Rishon Le Zion – a delegation of the Bennohaus visits the partner city of Münster in Israel
 
„Remember and tell” – that is written on the blue bracelets worn by a group of young people from the Bennohaus in these days. Because of an invitation of the twin town Rishon Le Zion and the Youth Department Rishon a delegation from the Bennohaus travelled to Israel at the end of November. The reason for the israeli-german encounter was the appraisal of the now 13 year continuing cooperation between the Bürgerhaus Bennohaus and the film section of the Revivim Highschool in Rishon. Together with the circle of friends Rishon and in cooperation with the city of Münster, the Bennohaus has cultivated the german-israeli friendship for many years by organising yearly meetings of youngsters doing media seminars. By that, many films and clips were made, mostly dealing with important topics like the Holocaust, report of timewitnesses or forced labour in the Second World War. But also reports
about current subjects like the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians have been made.


After an official welcome by the mayor of Rishon, Mr. Dov Zur, at the beginning of the encounter, a celebration of the jubilee took place in the Revivim-school in the middle of the week. There the friendship with the Bennohaus was dignified and the media productions of the last 13 years were presented to 200 pupils and official guests of the city. „The future should be built on the knowledge of the past”, Tal Genosar, the leader of the medial department of the school explained. The managing director Michal Timan especially thanked the manager of the Bennohaus, Dr. Joachim Musholt: „We want love and peace in our country and therefore we mustn’t forget the past. The cooperation with the Bennohaus builds a medial bridge to achieve this aim”.

The importance of the medial examination of present political and religious subjects was shown to the participants by the 2010 Oscar-nominated movie „Ajami” that breaks through the religious divison of the Israelis and the Arabian in a shattering way. Moreover the director of the film Yaron Shani was invited by the film section Revivim to discuss with the german and
israeli youth. „You don’t know how hard reality is when the person on the other side doesn’t think you’re equal”, he explained, „I wanted to hold a mirror in front of the humans’ eyes, becaus THIS IS REALITY”.

Furthermore the participants dealt with the german-israeli history in this meeting. They visited for example the Holocaust-House and met some Holocaust-survivors who talked about their destinies. In the memorial for dead soldiers they laid down a chaplet. The presentation of
different youth organisations of the Youth Departments completed the program. Beside the young hospitality siblings where the german participants were hosted, the members of the „UN Model Clubs” and the „Young Diplomats” accompanied their guests on their eventful trip. For 2014 more projects are already planned with the Youth Department Rishon. A blog about the week can be seen under http://bennohaus.info/?page_id=6831.

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