As part of EUJS’s efforts to strengthen ties with other European minorities, to familiarize ourselves with each-other’s problematiques and to work towards coalition-building, we have organized a study session jointly tackling the issues of antisemitism and anti-gypsyism. The study session, named Khetane (together in Romani) and Kadima (forward in Hebrew) consisted of five full days of informal education, focused on addressing the problematic of both Jewish and Roma-Sinti discrimination and hatred. It was another great opportunity for EUJS to develop even closer relations with the Roma and Sinti communities.
The event was held at the European Youth Centre in Budapest, as part of the No Hate Speech Movement, in cooperation with the Council of Europe, Phiren Amenca, TernYpe.
Sessions covered a wide range of topics, from defining and explaining the essence of racism, understanding both anti-Semitism and antigypsyism, to combating non-formal hate speech education through advocacy and local actions. Throughout the event, participants also had the chance to deliver individual presentations with the aim of substantiating Jewish and Roma traditions and cultures. Part of the time, participants divided into working groups in order to forward portential projects to be further implemented on the local or regional level. The aim was to develop a plan and concretize it as much as possible in order to establish effective mechanisms to combat hate speech and discrimination amongst the Jewish, Roma, and Sinti communities all over Europe.
On our final day, we presented the results and evaluated each other’s work. The conference was a great success and it shows that one of EUJS’s cornerstone values, “by young people, for young people” has very positive prospects for the future.
