DialoguePerspectives 2021/22 organized by Leo Baeck Institute.

Source: DialoguePerspectives 2021/22 organized by Leo Baeck Foundation.

• Call for ApplicationsDialoguePerspectives Programme Year 2021/22
• Dialogueperspectives. Discussing Religions and Worldviews

Join a unique European network of future decision-makers! Seize the chance to shape the shared life of different religious communities in Europe, and our shared European society!

You are a student or doctoral candidate in the European Union or the UK? You are active in the campus life, your religious community, or in civil society organisations and institutions? You are interested in questions about the role of religions and worldviews? You believe in the importance of inclusive and innovative inter-religious and worldview dialogue? You are seeking exchange and encounters with students and doctoral candidates from other countries and with a diversity of identities? You would like to get involved in a unique network of future change-agents for inter-religious and worldview dialogue?

Then apply for the DialoguePerspectives programme!

Come and grapple with questions of religious, political, and societal plurality of European society with us. Formulate shared goals, forge new alliances, and get engaged with us: Against racism, anti-Semitism, hatred of Muslims, anti-feminism and queer- and transphobia and for a pluralistic European society!

As a participant of DialoguePerspectives, you will take part in the following three events:

CHEVRON-RIGHT

1. Autumn Seminar 2021 “Towards a pluralistic European culture of remembrance: Navigating the narratives, memories and histories that shape European communities“ October 6th—10th 2021, Potsdam/Germany & Berlin/Germany

2. Spring Seminar 2022 “Luxembourg—religious diversity and the socio-political responsibility of religious communities in the centre of Europe” March 23rd—27th 2022, Luxembourg

3. International Conference 2022 June 16th—19th 2022, Berlin/Germany

Costs and Contributions The DialoguePerspectives programme is made possible by contributions from Germany’s Federal Foreign Office. The costs of the seminars, accommodation, and catering during all events, as well as a travel stipend per event, are covered by the programme.

The Programme

DialoguePerspectives. Discussing Religions and Worldviews develops and establishes new and innovative forms of interfaith-worldview dialogue. Its mission is to meaningfully con-tribute to European understanding and collaboration, to the strengthening and defence of European civil society, and to the shaping of a pluralistic and democratic Europe grounded in the principle of solidarity.

Since 2015, almost 250 students and doctoral candidates of diverse religious and worldview orientations have come together through the programme. With the support of the Federal Foreign Office, the programme has been extended to a European platform for training future leaders in academia, culture, politics, and business to become experts in a new, societally-oriented interfaith-worldview dialogue.

The participants reflect the religious, political, and societal plurality of European society. They incorporate their diverse backgrounds and experiences to create a fertile ground for exchange, finding an urgently necessary space for encounter, exchange, and dialogue at DialoguePerspectives.

DialoguePerspectives allows its participants to work across disciplines and to engage change agents with of diverse religious and non-religious affiliations. During the seminars the participants reflect upon societal and political frameworks and their meaning for the respective religious communities in Europe. Topics include commonalities and differences in the shared lives of religious communities, constitutional prerequisites on the relationship between state and religion, the socio-political and personal implications resulting from them.

Through practical, outcome-oriented, and pluralistic dialogue processes and formats we equip our participants with concrete tools for taking on the challenges of our pluralistic and increasingly fragmented and polarized society. They learn to use their diverse sets of expertise to strengthen their communities and formulate their needs for the whole of society. They develop strategies against, among others, nationalism, right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism and (anti-Muslim) racism and for a pluralistic, democratic, society based in solidarity that they can apply and perpetuate long-term in their own alliances and in their academic and professional lives.

Religious Practice

Joint religious practice during the events is, alongside the topical work, a further focal point of the programme. DialoguePerspectives creates a space to both live out your own practices and to get to know the practices of other religious communities and worldviews. Participants create morning inputs in which they can introduce and share with each other their religious and spiritual practices. They forge shared forms of expressions that open up new religious and spiritual approaches.

Fundamental Goals

1.To create a European, globally-acting and robust network of future European leaders, with the goal of training them to become competent shapers of European discourses at the intersection of religions/worldviews, academia, politics, culture, business, and social responsibility.

2.To further develop a constructive, societally-oriented dialogue between religious and worldview-based communities in Europe with the goal of strengthening these diverse European communities across national boundaries, creating new European alliances, kindling a feeling of mutual protection and solidarity between individual religious and worldview communities, and to translate this feeling to a shared European responsi-bility to take action for one another.

3.To create a robust European network of renowned academic, civil society, political, religious/worldview, and corporate partner institutions and organizations in European partner countries to facilitate the transfer of DialoguePerspectives’ insights and me-thods with the goal of actively strengthening European cooperation. 4.To actively participate in shaping current and future European discourses at the inter-sections between religions/worldviews, academia, politics, and societal responsibility using practical, outcome-oriented, and pluralistic dialogue processes and formats.

Foundational Conceptual Assumptions

• Religions and worldviews fundamentally shape the lives and actions of individuals and society. DialoguePerspectives works on a foundational assumption of religious pluralism. All dialogue partners are entitled to equal participation in an inclusive, contemporary, and thoughtful dialogue.
• When speaking of religions and worldviews, following the social structure of pluralistic societies, we mean not only the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) but also all other institutional religions, and non-institutional, privatistic and new religious movements, orientations, and convictions as well as atheistic and anti-theistic worldviews.
• No position is favoured within the programme.
• DialoguePerspectives prioritises the encounter between different individuals, above and beyond their convictions. These individuals represent diversity not only in terms of their religious/worldview orientations, but also in terms of other attributes that shape identity such as, for example, sexual and gender identities and ethnic origins.
• Relationships are the focus of the programme: interpersonal, inter-religious/worldview, and intercultural. The encounter has the relationship as its goal: The programme lives on intensive exchange with one another, from constructive confrontation and from shared experiences of religious practice. Individual beliefs and attitudes relating to their worldviews are often seen by the participants as highly intimate aspects of their selves. This exchange thus requires a framework that makes possible deep discussions – with the goal of crafting resilient personal alliances out of the relationships that develop after a year of working together.

Leo Baeck Foundation

November 2006 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Leo Baeck (1873 – 1956), one of the most renowned exponents of German-Jewish cultural and philosophical traditions. Throughout his life, Leo Baeck made it his mission to help Judaism evolve in a manner that respected tradition yet allowed for the realities of the modern world. In the process, he worked tirelessly to promote the education of young rabbis at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for the Science of Judaism) in Berlin and to foster inter-faith dialogue with Christianity, Islam, and other religions.

The declared purpose of the Leo Baeck Foundation, founded in Baeck's honor on the 50th anniversary of his death, is to support the Jewish community in Europe by promoting Jewish religious congregations, particularly their efforts to pass on Jewish religious learning and tradition to coming generations. Another key focus of the Foundation is the exploration of fresh angles for constructive inter-faith dialogue.

The Leo Baeck Foundation is predominately operational in character, initiating and implementing its own projects in Jewish education and theology.

In supporting rabbinical students, the Leo Baeck Foundation seeks to continue the original, guiding vision of the Natalie and Leo Baeck-Stiftung, which was founded in 1937 by the Jewish Congregation of Berlin in recognition of Dr. Baeck's 25 years of rabbinical service.

Dialogperspektiven: Ausschreibung zum neuen Programmjahr

Liebe Kolleg - innen, liebe Förder - innen der Dialogperspektiven!

Vor zwei Wochen haben wir mit der Internationalen Konferenz 2021 das erste europäische Programmjahr der Dialogperspektiven erfolgreich abgeschlossen. Ich möchte die Gelegenheit nutzen, Ihnen und Euch noch einmal ganz herzlich für Ihre Unterstützung zu danken.

Mit der ersten europäischen Generation von 71 Teilnehmer - innen aus 18 europäischen Ländern haben wir eine wichtige Grundlage geschaffen, um auf gesellschaftlicher, politischer, akademischer und aktivistischer Ebene Dialogperspektiven als europäische Organisation an der Schnittstelle von Religionen, Weltanschauungen und Gesellschaft zu etablieren. Eines hat dieses Programmjahr auf beeindruckende Weise gezeigt: Die Dialogperspektiven sind als europäisches, global agierendes Netzwerk ein wichtiges Tool, um den noch nie da gewesenen Herausforderungen nach Corona zu begegnen – über nationale, religiöse, weltanschauliche Grenzen hinweg.

Die Dialogperspektiven werden durch das Auswärtige Amt ermöglicht und durch viele uns unentbehrliche unterstützer - innen ermöglicht. Sie alle werden mir zustimmen: Ob im europäischen Gesellschaftsdiskurs, in lokalen, nationalen und internationalen Initiativen oder in den vielfältigsten Religionsgemeinschaften: Unsere Teilnehmer - innen stehen für ein plurales, demokratisches und solidarisches Europa. Und es freut uns ungemein, dass Dialogperspektiven die große katalysatorische Wirkung entfalten kann, die es uns allen ermöglicht, neue Visionen für unsere europäische Gesellschaft nicht nur zu entwickeln, sondern auch Schritte zur Realisierung gehen zu können.

Das Netzwerk der Dialogperspektiven wird nun weiter wachsen: Ich freue mich sehr, Ihnen die Ausschreibung für das neue Programmjahr zu schicken verbunden mit der Bitte, diese in Ihre Netzwerke zu streuen und an Ihre Partner-Organisationen weiterzuleiten. Die Bewerbungsfrist endet am 15. August 2021.

Alle Informationen zum Programmjahr 2021/22 und zur Bewerbung finden Sie und findet Ihr auf unserer Webseite und auf Facebook.

Bei Fragen wenden Sie sich/wendet Ihr Euch gerne an Johanna Korneli (korneli@dialogperspektiven.de)

Wir freuen uns sehr, unsere Arbeit im kommenden Programmjahr fortzusetzen und einen wesentlichen Beitrag zu leisten: für die europäische Verständigung und Zusammenarbeit, für die Stärkung und Verteidigung der europäischen Zivilgesellschaft und zur Gestaltung eines pluralen, demokratischen und solidarischen Europas.

Herzlichen Dank für Ihre und Eure Unterstützung!

Jo Frank

Jo Frank Director of Development frank@leo-baeck-foundation.de +49 172 519 1265 www: www.leo-baeck-foundation.org