Award Ceremony 2018
The Shimon-Peres-Prize 2018 was awarded on October 10 by Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to two German-Israeli collaborations – the music project Caravan Orchestra and the film incubator Out of Place.

The ceremony took place in the Rotes Rathaus (city hall) of Berlin and was attended by the Peres Family and 350 guests. The walls trembled in the Big Hall of the time-honored building when the Israeli singer and winner of the Eurovision song competition Dana International took to the stage with her fast-paced hits. Reason enough for the young musicians of the Caravan Orchestra to join her for one of her songs.

The prize, Maas explained in his speech, was intended to encourage young people like these to “dedicate all their tenacity and their very own creativity” to a better understanding between Germans and Israelis.

Dr. Tamara Or, Executive Director of the German-Israeli Future Forum, referred to Peres’ appeals to the young generation “not to lose hope and hold on to the dream of a more equitable world.” She emphasized that “hundreds of institutions, civil society organizations and volunteers in Israel and Germany” committed themselves to “our societies and a joint democratic future” and called the prize an encouragement to work for “our democracies, for the inclusion of all segments of society and, naturally, for German-Israeli relations.”

The program for the event can be found here.