“This 60th anniversary year of German-Israeli diplomatic relations provides a special setting for our prize, which recognizes the partnership that has been cultivated for many years. The Shimon Peres Prize belongs to the courageous – those who act when it is difficult and who persevere when doubts arise,” said jury member and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the German-Israeli Future Forum, Brigitte Zypries.
Creative Partnership for Inclusion
German-Israeli Art and Theater Project
Art can open doors where words fail. This is the guiding principle behind the collaboration between the Na LaGa'at Theater in Tel Aviv-Yafo and the theater collective Possible World in Berlin. The project brought together young people working in the fields of culture, education, and social involvement with marginalized groups. It brought together participants with and without disabilities to create theater together. They explored how people from different backgrounds can connect – and how cultural participation can become accessible to everyone.
Participants experimented with new and creative methods of inclusive theater in workshops in Israel, Germany, and other European countries. The facilitation team included blind and deaf actors, who shared their personal experiences and unique perspectives. The project resulted in a digital book, accessible in different languages, which includes field-tested exercises and innovative working methods for inclusion in the field of culture. In addition, the project strengthened the professional, social, and personal skills of the participants, encouraged language skills as well as intercultural skills, and increased the participants' sense of confidence in inclusive work.
The Creative Partnership for Inclusion project promoted basic values of empathy, respect, and tolerance and created a foundation for continued joint work by the participating theaters, which will continue to work toward social involvement in the future.
Shalom Chaveruth
Time out for emergency response teams from Israel
Emergency response teams need broad shoulders and safe spaces to recharge their batteries. The Workers’ Samaritan Foundation Germany (Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund) in the city of Winnen invited psychosocial and emergency intervention teams from Israel to take a break in Germany. The group included professionals and experts, as well as volunteers who, since the beginning of the war, have been supporting traumatized people in Israel near the Gaza Strip. The project deliberately created a quiet place of respite from stress to support those who usually provide tireless assistance.
In personal conversations, participants shared which psychosocial methods are used by Israeli aid teams in crisis situations and which approaches for aftercare from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia could offer support. The program combined professional knowledge with focused rest periods and activities such as yoga and other stress reduction techniques to strengthen the participants' self-care skills. During visits to the Jewish community in Dortmund and the Office of the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf, the group's important work received public recognition and appreciation. The program created a safe space where aid workers could talk openly about their difficulties, share experiences, and re-build resilience.
Shalom Chaveruth made a touching contribution to understanding between Germany and Israel: The project strengthened professional networks, helped exhausted staff members recharge their batteries, and demonstrated impressive solidarity in everyday life.
SHORT-LIST
In addition to this year's award-winning projects, the jury selected two other initiatives that impressed with their commitment and deserve special mention:
The Voices from Gaza and Israel project brings two courageous voices together. In moderated panels, Palestinian activist Hamza Howidy, who protested against Hamas in Gaza and was imprisoned for doing so, and Israeli educator Shay Dashevsky, known for the initiative “I am from Israel – ask me anything”, share their experiences with a German audience. They open up honest question-and-answer sessions and create a space where empathy is more important than slogans. The sold-out events, each with 50 to 60 participants, have been taking place regularly in libraries, youth centers, schools, universities, and the Brandenburg state parliament, since January 2025.
Zikaron BaSalon is an Israeli initiative that has been active in Germany since 2023 and that brings the memory of the Shoah from large stages into private living rooms. The aim of the project is to create a personally accessible and dialogical form of remembrance that brings together people from a wide variety of backgrounds. During a typical evening, first- or second-generation eyewitnesses first tell their stories, followed by an open discussion. An artistic contribution concludes the event.
