Prizewinners 2019

The 2019 Shimon Peres Prize was awarded to two collaborations that “in Israeli-German projects work to promote peace, democracy and justice. The political and social conditions in both countries form the framework: the conflict in the Middle East, the processes of transformation in Germany, the increase in anti-democratic movements and the opportunities for living together in our immigrant societies. These conditions present challenges and at the same time form the basis for an exciting, multi-perspective exchange in the two projects selected for the award by the jury.” Jutta Weduwen on the jury’s decision

Professional Exchange: Understanding and Responsibilities: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Jugendfreizeitstätten Sachsen e.V. (Deutschland) and Sapir College (Israel)

The participants of the 2018 Professional Exchange met in Saxony and southern Israel to exchange ideas and discuss how best to design a framework for professional work with young people, in particular on issues relating to diversity, gender, interculturality, extremism and democracy. The professionals and students involved (AGJF Sachsen e.V., Sapir College, LAK Mobile Jugendarbeit Sachsen e.V., LAG Mädchen und junge Frauen in Sachsen e.V., LAG Jungen- und Männerarbeit e.V., Evangelische Hochschule Dresden) visited local initiatives and workplaces in both countries and jointly developed tools for working with street youth and youth violence, (political) participation among young people, the promotion of democratic competencies and tackling interruptions in education biographies.

Here, the focus was on exchanging information gained from the participants’ own professional experience and on learning best practice methods together. In this way, participants developed approaches for responding to the impact of dynamic changes in post-modern societies. The project partners also further developed a close cooperation network that will provide a forum for a professional exchange of ideas in the future.

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More than One Democracy: Adam Institute for Democracy and Peace (AI) (Israel) and Akademie Führung & Kompetenz, Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP) at the University of Munich (Germany)

The comprehensive manual “More than One Democracy”, which was written and published in Hebrew and Arabic in 2005 by the Adam Institute in Israel, was adapted after 2014 and translated into German in this joint project between the Adam Institute and the Akademie Führung & Kompetenz, Center for Applied Policy Research at the University of Munich.

“More than one Democracy” is being successfully used in Germany and Israel for further training events and workshops with different groups of participants. Over 1,000 school pupils and adults in both countries have already attended training events on democracy education. In addition, regular train-the-trainer workshops and conferences are held at the Gustav Stresemann Institute in Germany in order to harness experiences gained on the ground during implementation in Israeli and German society, and to further improve the processes.

The 400-page manual is an innovative combination of philosophy and psychology, sociology and politics designed to teach readers about democracy and conflict resolution. It was first published in German in 2015 (second edition: 2019)..


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