Towards Networks for Dialogue: Multiperspective Strategies on Combatting Antisemitism at Local Levels is a two-year project began in April 2024, co-run by an international consortium of three institutions: Forum for Dialogue (Poland), House of the Wannsee Conference – A Memorial and Educational Site (Germany), and Ecorys Polska (Poland). Funded by a grant awarded within the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program set up by the European Commission, it connects individuals and institutions combating antisemitism by working directly with local communities in Poland and Germany into networks that provide support and sustainability.
Forum for Dialogue is the leader and coordinator of this international consortium, which builds on the strengths and experiences of its members.
With over 25 years of experience in rebuilding and creating new connections between contemporary Poland and Jewish communities around the world, as well as educating and restoring the memory of Jews in Poland, the Forum for Dialogue is uniquely poised to model innovative solutions for sustainable support of individuals and organizations dedicated to improving Polish/Jewish relations and fight antisemitism and prejudice. The Forum for Dialogue Network, which currently comprises of 180 activists united in the belief that Jewish history in Poland must be studied, preserved, and commemorated with empathy and in a spirit of mutual respect, is a model format that ensures lasting and large-scale impact on the national level.
Founded in 1990, the House of the Wannsee Conference – A Memorial and Educational Site has been focusing its activities on education by means of exhibitions and research via the Joseph Wulf Library. Located at the historic site of the Wansee Conference, it offers educational programs focused on the history of the persecution and later extermination of European Jews, as well as on the origins and development of National Socialism and its consequences.
As the Polish chapter of one of the oldest consulting companies in Europe dedicated to consulting, research, and applied economic analysis, and with its local and global experience in monitoring and evaluating projects and policies, Ecorys Polska provides strategic assistance to both its partners. Ecorys grew out of a non-governmental organization founded nearly 100 years ago, the Netherlands Economic Institute, and its vision and mission today reflect an unorthodox approach focused on civil society.
Forum for Dialogue’s main task in the program is strengthening, in its quantitative and qualitative capacity, the Forum for Dialogue Network of grassroots activists from all over Poland who educate about Jewish history and culture, protect Jewish heritage, and establish relationships with descendants of Polish Jews. Forum will also further improve the sustainability and effectiveness of the Network by significantly increasing the number of Network members, reaching 250 individual members by the end of 2025, implementing new management and organizational tools, such as a regional group structure, and enriching the offer for activists through workshops, seminars, and consultations.
The House of the Wannsee Conference aims to identify and connect into a network a group of approximately 15-20 individuals from Berlin and Brandenburg, representing various levels of involvement in combating antisemitism, including volunteers and freelancers, as well as permanent staff from several memorial sites. The organization also plans to revise and refine existing approaches to Holocaust education and combating antisemitism in today’s context via a series of sessions with network members.
Ecorys Polska will support Forum for Dialogue in monitoring and evaluation of the project’s progress. This is vital oversight at a moment of rapid growth in the number of activists invited to the Network, as well as development of the program offer for Network members. The findings will be then transformed into recommendations regarding defining good practice, evaluating the functioning and management of the new network, and assessing the growth of knowledge and skills of activists in the Network, especially with regards to communication with local non-Jewish and international Jewish communities.
Inadvertently, the cooperation between Forum for Dialogue and the House of Wannsee Conference will enable an exchange of experiences through a Study Visit program in Germany and Poland. This will allow not just an exchange, but evaluation of the feasibility of a sustainable translation and adaptation of practices dedicated to combating antisemitism in Poland and Germany.
In addition, the project will stimulate cooperation between Poland and Germany in the fields of education and involved citizenship. It will give rise to new bilateral initiatives and networks and lead to prevention of and improved responses to xenophobia, intolerance, and antisemitic stereotypes and violence in both countries.
Towards Networks for Dialogue: Multiperspective Strategies on Combatting Antisemitism at Local Levels began in April 2024 and will end in April 2026, It was selected for funding in the 2023 edition of Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Program set up by the European Commission.
