Experiencing Israel Day

 

The council chamber as a classroom: North Rhine-Westphalia State Parliament encourages teenagers to discover unfamiliar facets about Israel.

 

The “O” in “shalom” is replaced by puckered lips. This printed message on the jute bags carried by over 300 teenagers from North Rhine-Westphalia who visited the state parliament in Düsseldorf at the beginning of June, is a clear statement championing German-Israeli friendship. The state parliament, the state government and the Israeli embassy in Berlin invited the teenagers to an Israel Day to tell them more about the Middle Eastern country with a high standard of living and a highly diverse population. The focus was not on the Middle East conflict, but on the everyday life in this country with eight million people.

 

In the council chamber, where normally the members of North Rhine-Westphalia’s State Parliament debate, the youngsters found out, for example, that Israelis are just as enthusiastic about football as are Germans. With one difference: If a match takes place on Friday evening then Israelis do not watch because they celebrate the Sabbath from Friday evening to Saturday evening. As Manfred Lämmer, Professor of Sports History in Cologne knows only too well, even Friday afternoon is difficult where matches are concerned: “Then there’s a danger that people can’t make it home in time. There are never as many accidents in Israel as on Friday afternoon when everyone is rushing home.“

“Getting to know a different Israel”

 

Taking as the motto “Getting to know a different Israel” the organizers offered six seminar topics that 12-17 year-olds can relate to – including aspects of Israeli society and voluntary services in Israel. Another subject addressed was the impressive development of the country: After all, within a few decades Israel has transformed itself from the country known primarily for its juicy Jaffa oranges to a highly-developed industrial nation boasting over 4,000 start-up-firms.

 

That certainly caught the eye of several teenagers, for example Kaja Hutz from the Humboldt Grammar School in Solingen, who is keenly interested in the latest developments. Several times a week she looks to see whether there are new apps for her Smartphone. In the autumn she will fly to Israel along with 15 fellow pupils from the school’s Israel study group. Over Easter 16 Israelis visited North Rhine-Westphalia.

 

Laughing at the same things

 

Since that visit every day Marc Oppermann, also from Solingen, has been sending Whatsapp messages across the Mediterranean. “It was such an exciting experience, we were really sad to see them go,” he said. To begin with he and his schoolmates were not sure they would find anything to talk about. “But then we realized: We laugh at the same things and have the same interests.”

On the day many teenagers talked about the similarity between young Israelis and young Germans, and the fact that Israel is more than just a party in the  Middle East conflict. Over half of the students had either already visited Israel or were making preparations for an exchange. “Israel changes you,” commented one young participant. She wants to do something with international relations, she has decided. The Israel Day made her realize that.

 

Acting against anti-Semitism

 

For ten years the Israeli embassy in Berlin has in cooperation with the state parliaments organized “Israel Days” – in 2015 for the third time in North Rhine-Westphalia. President of the State Parliament Carina Gödecke appealed to the teenagers to drive German-Israeli friendship forward: “Help us to build something solid that cannot be destroyed again,” she said. “That also means standing up against every form of anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia.”

 

The Israel Day for teenagers was followed up in the evening by a ceremony in the council chamber to celebrate the initiation of diplomatic relations 50 years ago. As Avraham Nir-Feldklein, diplomat at the Israeli embassy in Berlin, emphasised, Germany is now very popular in Israel: “The basis is there, the friendship is there and we should take that forward into the future.” Premier Hannelore Kraft spoke about the responsibility North Rhine-Westphalia has as Germany’s most populous state. It has long since had close links to Israel: Back in 1953 the Israel Mission was opened in Cologne, many years before diplomatic relations were initiated. In 1960, a group of young adults travelled from Cologne to Tel Aviv, making them one of the first groups to visit Israel after the Holocaust.

 

Hannelore Kraft emphasized: “We are fortunate that Jews in Israel and in North Rhine-Westphalia have enabled a future and joint life together. We are eternally grateful to these men and women, who have accepted North Rhine-Westphalia again as their home and who were willing and capable of making this gesture of reconciliation and peace – after the Shoah.” North Rhine-Westphalia promotes a youth exchange scheme involving 50 school partnerships and 28 partnerships between cities and academic collaborations. Over 400 teachers have already participated in one of the teacher further training seminars, which the state offers together with the Israeli International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem. In the state parliament the NRW-Israel parliamentary group maintains contact to Israel.

Grisha Alroi-Arloser, President of the Israeli-German Society called for more exchange in all areas, not only in voluntary work, but also in industry. For example, young German professionals should work much more frequently in Israeli high-tech firms to gain deeper insights into the country, he said: “After all, both sides can only benefit.”