2024 will be a break year for the Dresden Jewish Week. The well-known and largest festival of Jewish culture in the state capital Dresden will not take place next autumn.
As Valentina Marcenaro, chairwoman of the Jewish Music and Theater Week Dresden eV, explains: “It was not easy for us to cancel the festival this year. However, we urgently need internal structural renewal and therefore do not see ourselves in a position to organize a festival." and "in order to receive suggestions for the change process and to jointly develop new ideas both for the further development of the festival and for the planned theme year "2026 - "To collect information about Jewish culture in Saxony, we decided to organize a symposium," says Marcenaro.
Together with the Office for Culture and Monument Protection, the association invites you to two exciting days of discussion on April 15th and 16th, 2024 under the title "Jewish, now! - The importance of Jewish culture for a democratic society" in the Cultural City Hall in Dresden.
The aim of the symposium is to reflect on a vibrant Jewish culture and to find answers together to questions such as the importance of everyday Jewish culture in relation to topics such as anti-Semitism, the Shoah or Israel. The aim is to explore how positive spaces of experience for Jewish topics can be created and what lessons can be drawn from the experiences of other organizers in order to enrich each other.
The association is looking forward to national and international speakers such as Keith Kahn-Harris, author of the book "How do Jews look like", Lea Wohl von Haselberg, curator of the Berlin-Brandenburg Jewish Film Festival and Anastassia Pletoukhina, director of the Jewish Agency Berlin and head of the “Nevatim” program, which is dedicated to promoting the engagement of young Jews in Europe. During the symposium, participants have the opportunity to talk to experts and each other in order to gain a new perspective on the communication and presentation of Jewish topics.
The symposium is aimed at a specialist audience, but is also open to the interested public and is supported by both the Office for Culture and Monument Protection and the Cultural Foundation of Saxony. Registrations are now open. Tickets can be reserved at karten@juedische-woche-dresden.de .
On the evening of April 15th, the Jewish Week still wants to create a bit of a festival atmosphere, because it doesn't work without art. That's why she invited people to a concert with the Sephardic band Davagariko at the Societaetstheater.
More details...
The detailed program of the symposium will appear on the website in the next few days: www.juedische-woche-dresden.de
Symposium “Jewish, now!” – The importance of Jewish culture for a democratic society”
When: April 15 and 16, 2024
Cost: 80 euros
Location: Cultural Town Hall, Königstr. 15, 01097 Dresden
Seat reservation: karten@juedische-woche-dresden.de