stiftung deutsch-israelisches zukunftsforum

Jury

Shimon-Peres-Prize: Jury 2020-2022

Christian Berkel

After growing up in Paris, Christian Berkel, who was born in Berlin, took his first acting lessons in France before completing his training at the German Film and Television Academy. With his unique acting style and characterful appearance, the award-winning actor immediately makes an indelible impression on audiences.

He has appeared in numerous feature films, such as the psychothriller Das Experiment. He is best known to international audiences in his roles in the Oscar-nominated historical drama Downfall and Inglorious Basterds, where he acted alongside Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz, among others. He also appeared alongside Isabelle Huppert in Elle, the French film nominated for an Oscar. After his authorial debut Der Apfelbaum (The Apple Tree) in 2018, his second novel Ada was published in 2020. Christian Berkel lives with his family in Berlin.

photo: © Stefan Klüter

Dr. Alice Brauner

Dr. Alice Brauner was born in Berlin. She studied modern history, political studies and Romance studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and gained her doctorate at the Center for Research on anti-Semitism at the Technical University Berlin.

After spending time as an editor for print media, she worked as an interviewer and consultant at the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Dr. Alice Brauner is on the executive board of CCC Filmkunst GmbH, CCC Cinema and Television GmbH and CCC Filmstudios as a film, television and web producer. She collaborated with her father to create her first award-winning full-length feature film, Der letzte Zug (The Last Train). This was followed by TV films and outstanding feature films such as Wunderkinder and Crescendo. As well as receiving numerous awards for her films, she also won a “Romy” award in 2012 as the best producer of a German feature film.

photo: © CCC Filmkunst Daniela Incoronato

Derviş Hızarcı

Derviş Hızarcı is program director of the Alfred Landecker Foundation and responsible for projects in the field of minority protection and combating anti-Semitism. Previously, he was an anti-discrimination officer at the Berlin education administration.

Hızarcı has been campaigning against various forms of discrimination such as racism and anti-Semitism for many years. This includes his time as chairman of the board of the Turkish Community of Berlin and currently as chairman of the board of the Kreuzberger Initiative against anti-Semitism. Before that, he worked in the education department of the Jewish Museum Berlin and as a teacher at a Berlin school. In his free time, he spends a lot of time with his two children and is an active member of the traditional Jewish sports club TuS Makkabi.

photo: © Daniel Eliasson

Ahmad Mansour

Ahmad Mansour holds a master’s degree in psychology and works as a writer in Berlin. He was born in Kfar Saba and has Israeli and German citizenship. In 2018, he founded the Mansour-Initiative für Demokratieförderung und Extremismusprävention (the Mansour initiative for the promotion of democracy and the prevention of extremism, or MIND prevention), which conducts workshops on the prevention of extremism.

This involves working with prisoners in youth detention centers and with refugees. Mansour also works tirelessly to combat antisemitism. In 2015, his book, Generation Allah. Warum wir im Kampf gegen religiösen Extremismus umdenken müssen, (Generation Allah, Why we Need to Rethink the Fight against Religious Extremism) was published, followed in August 2018 by Klartext zur Integration – Gegen falsche Toleranz und Panikmache (Plain Speaking on Integration – Against False Tolerance and Scaremongering). He has received numerous awards for his work.

photo: © Heike Steinweg

Dr. Hermann Simon

Hermann Simon was born in Berlin in 1949. Having completed secondary school he studied History and Oriental Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin, followed by post-graduate studies in Prague, specialising in Oriental Numismatics, which were the topic of his doctorate.

From 1975 to 1988, he worked at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. From 1988-2015, he served as the Director of the Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin – Centrum Judaicum.
He has written numerous publications on numismatics and the history of Jews in Germany.

© Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin – Centrum Judaicum; photo: Anna Fischer

Nadav Tamir

Nadav Tamir currently serves as the Executive Director of J Street Israel. He is also Senior Advisor for International Affairs at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation and Director of International Policy and Government Relations at Peres & Associates Global Advisory Ltd.

During the last three years of the presidency of Shimon Peres he served as his Senior Policy Advisor.
Previously, he served as the Israeli Consul General to New England at the Boston Consulate and held positions at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He also served as Policy Assistant to three different Foreign Ministers – Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, and David Levy.
Tamir holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science and an M.A. in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is a board member of Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies and on the steering committee of the Geneva Initiative.

Antonia Yamin

Antonia Yamin is Chief Europe correspondent for KAN News, the Israeli broadcasting corporation. She interviewed the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and she was the last one to interview the famous Israeli novelist Amos Oz.

She filmed a story at one of the biggest neo-Nazi rock Festivals in Germany, and exclusively interviewed Adolf Hitler's personal maid, a story that got worldwide attention. Before working for KAN TV Yamin worked for channel 10 News and for the German public channel ZDF (Tel-Aviv office). Yamin was born in Germany to a German mother and an Israeli father. She lives in Berlin and holds a German passport. She studied communications and political science at Tel-Aviv University as well as journalism at Koteret school of Journalism. In 2019, Yamin won the B’nai B’rith World Center Journalism Award Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage.

photo: © Boaz Arad

Jury 2017-2019

Mohammad Darawshe

Mohammad Darawshe is the Director of the Center for Equality and Shared Society at Givat Haviva Institute in Israel. He is also a Research Fellow at the Hartman Institute and serves as an expert on national minorities at the European Council in Strasbourg.

Previously, he served as Co-Director of The Abraham Fund Initiatives and as Elections Campaign Manager for the Democratic Arab Party and later The United Arab List.
He holds a B.A from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies from Haifa University.

Kai Diekmann

Kai Diekmann (1964) was publishing director of the BILD daily newspaper until January 2017. For 15 years prior to this, he was editor-in-chief of the newspaper, which is one of Europe’s biggest news brands, reaching 39 million readers and users each month.

Previously, he served as editor-in-chief of WELT am SONNTAG.
Since 2004, he has been an independent member of the board of directors of the Turkish daily Hürriyet; since 2011 he has served as non-executive director of the London Times; since 2017 as member of the Public Policy Advisory Board, UBER, San Francisco.
In addition, Diekmann has written and edited several books.

Prof. Dr. Anat Feinberg

Prof. Dr. Anat Feinberg, born in Tel Aviv, studied English Literature and Philosophy at Tel Aviv University (BA and MA). She completed her Ph.D. thesis on Jacobean and Caroline Drama at the University of London in 1979.

She taught at the English Department at Ben Gurion University and at Tel Aviv University. Since 1990, she has been living in Germany, teaching as honorary professor of Hebrew and Jewish Literature at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg. In 2012, she was honoured with the Order of Merit by the Federal Republic of Germany.

Sara von Schwarze

Sara von Schwarze was born in Germany in 1968. Her parents converted to Judaism and moved with their family to Israel. Sara is an actress, playwright and director.

She studied acting at the Beit Zvi School of Drama in Ramat Gan and has starred in numerous plays, TV shows and movies since 1992. She has appeared in Israel’s leading theatres, including the Habima, the Cameri and many others, as well as in theatres in Germany. She has been part of the Cameri theatre ensemble for the last 20 years. In addition, she has been active as an acting teacher and lecturer.

Sara von Schwarze has won many awards for her acting, among them the Tel Aiviv-Yaffo Municipality Award in the name of Abraham Ben Yossef, which she received five times.

Dr. Hermann Simon

Nadav Tamir

Nadav Tamir is currently director of international policy and government affairs at Peres & Associates Global Advisory LTD and in The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation. He is also the chairperson of the Wexner – Israel Alumni Association.

During the last three years of the presidency of Shimon Peres he served as his Senior Policy Adviser. Previously, he served as the Consul General of Israel to New England at the Consulate General in Boston and held positions in the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He also served as Policy Assistant to three different Foreign Ministers – Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, and David Levy.
Tamir holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science and an M.A. in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Jutta Weduwen

Jutta Weduwen (1964) is the CEO of Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ASF). She studied Sociology in Hamburg, Jerusalem and Berlin.

After working for four years in the Middle East Department of the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, she joined ASF in 2001. Initially serving as Israel coordinator, she later led the Project Area Interculturality and became CEO in 2012. She is a member of the spokespeople’s council of the Federal Association Church and Right Wing Extremism and in the Ecumenical Planning Committee for the Intercultural Week. Her areas of expertise: History(ies) in immigration society, Israel, antisemitism and racism, international volunteer services.