Haver Informal Jewish Educational Public Benefit Foundation
The word „Haver” means friend in Hebrew just as in Hungarian.
Mission
By providing a wide range of information and knowledge about Judaism, Jewish culture and heritage as well as the Shoah, Haver Foundation seeks to dispel misbelieves about Judaism and the Jewish people. Only a thoughtful youth open to diversity can be immune to Antisemitism and prejudices. The main objective of Haver’s work and activities is to promote mutual respect between people and contribute to the cross-cultural dialog.
History
The founders of the Haver Informal Jewish Educational Public Benefit Foundation are Jews and non-Jews who wish to reach out to young people in the spirit of the name they chose. They believe that by organizing and conducting open discussions and lectures around the subject of Jews and Judaism, they can successfully fight prejudice and misconceptions about Jews and Judaism and promote increased levels of understanding and acceptance.
In Hungary Antisemitism and anti-Semitic discourse has unfortunately a long and continuous history. Anti-Semitic phenomena can be seen in many different ways: we might minimize or overestimate their significance, but we definitely need to consider the impact of Antisemitism not only on Jews but also on the society as a whole.
The Hungarian Court registered the Foundation on December 27, 2002.
About the Haver method
Haver raises questions and inspire people because – following the old Jewish tradition – a good question is worth more than many good answers. The Haver educators aim at opening dialogs that will eventually base the foundation of a much open and respectful world.
The people involved with the Haver Foundation are creating together a unique model and example of commitment, innovation, responsibility, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness. Voluntarism is a key element of the Foundation’s work, where board members and educators are working together and thus contribute to achieve the vision of the organization. Taking into consideration the context of today’s situation in Hungary, this is an outstanding achievement.
HAVER Foundation Activity Report 2008
Activities
The educational staff of the Haver Foundation held a series of activities for high-school students in Budapest about the Holocaust and Judaism, during the school year 2007/2008. The project was aimed at informing high-school students age 16-18 about the events of the Holocaust and the involvement of the Hungarian society therein. With the application of methods of informal education the members of the Foundation tried to help students in understanding and “digesting” the Shoah. The objective of this project was to educate high-school students about the Holocaust and to avoid the development of guilt and negative feelings towards Jews on this basis. The secondary objective of the project was to fight the tendency of “Holocaust denial”.
In addition to the Holocaust the educational team of the Haver Foundation has held educational activities about Judaism and the Hungarian Jewish community. Informing the high-school students about a community largely unknown to them and educating them about the variety of aspects – religion, culture, ethnicity, the state of Israel and the Jews living in the Diaspora, etc. – they may consider when speaking about Judaism. The ultimate objective of this project was to promote tolerance among young people and to effectively fight prejudice deeply rooted in our society.
Over 1,700 students of 16 high schools, and 1 university participated in these projects. Many high school teachers and directors have asked the Haver Foundation to return and hold additional series of activities in the upcoming school year.
The Haver Foundation organized a Holocaust Memorial Day in April 2008 for high-school students aged 16-18 in the Frankel Leó street Synagogue and the Historical Jewish neighbor. After each meeting and activity students were invited to discuss the stories heard and information received and to provide feedback to the members and activist of the Foundation. Over 300 students participated in the project.
Other activities and projects implemented during 2008 by the team of Haver Foundation:
“Kata” project. The educational teams normally visit a class once therefore creating active involvement of the students is very important. The class curricula were designed carefully and they comprise of several different modules. One of these modules is an edited survivor’s testimony (Kata interview with the support and cooperation of Shoa Foundation) screened as part of the class. The new educational material was developed by the team recently. After evaluating the effectiveness of the different parts of the educational materials the core educational team has come to the conclusion that a whole class or even a longer curriculum can be built around using survivors’ testimony. Due to the depths of oral history Judaism, Jewish values and the complexity of identity can be discussed as well which further strengthens the message of the Haver Foundation. Our new initiative focuses on the extended usage of survivor testimonies which would come with English subtitles thus enabling Haver to teach international groups as well. As part of the package Haver created a teacher’s Guide with recommendations to the usage of the material.
Civil society involvement. Members of the Haver team were involved and participated at different conferences, meetings and round table discussions around the theme(s) of pluralism, tolerance and cultural dialog. The Jewish voice, the message and the values, engagement of Haver Foundation team members contributed to the dialog, planning and implementation of several projects in the frame of non profit sector and civil society in Hungary (ex. “Version” – International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival).
Training. A series of training sessions are planned to start in September 2008. The team development it is essential for the work of Haver Foundation. The experienced educators volunteering during the last years together with the new recruited volunteers will participate in the educational program that is planned to run for 3 months. The curriculum and structure of the training is planned and a number of experts from different fields – history, social psychology, education, culture and art – were invited to work with us.
New website. Using and exploring the potential of new technologies and channels of communication can give foundation’s work a new wave. We decided to build a new interactive website that will serve also as an online educational platform and tool. The concept is ready and the structure is planned. Based on the result of the resource development steps we have done the implementation and construction of the new website will start soon (August-September 2008).
Development of educational materials. Following the success of the “Kata” project and stimulated by the new educational material – content, structure, methodology, and design – we decided to review all our educational materials and renew them. In parallel the development of new educational materials is one of the high priorities at the moment. A brainstorming and planning group is working now days on the preparations of what is “the project” of the Foundation at the moment. The new educational material will be available in print, pdf. / download format and converted in an interactive form on the new website.
Strategic review
Based on the solid and stable ground provided by the board members in partnership with the volunteers of the Foundation, new innovative programs, activities, materials and channels of communication and dialog are in the process of development. The knowledge and values based on the approach of foundation’s work is stimulating and creates the opportunity for reaching more students and teachers, and of having a greater impact at the community and society level.
Part of our future plans, projects and activities include:
- Creating a Holocaust and Judaic studies’ educational center;
- Offering methodological educational courses for teachers and educators including an educational tool kit;
- Making connections with other minority and/or religious educational organizations with the vision of cooperation;
- Haver book collection – a project to be developed in partnership with an editing house working on non-profit basis and presenting a number of works never translated to Hungarian;
- Haver film collection – a project to be developed in partnership with a film agency working on non-profit base and presenting a number of short films, documentaries and social responsibility advertisement videos;
- Developing a new web site as an educational tool, including interactive and live sessions;
- Continuing the development of educational materials and tools based on the feedback and evaluation session with our target audience and population.
There are several major areas that are relevant in achieving our mission and goals:
- A strong and committed volunteer team: training, motivation, supervision;
- Developing new and innovative educational materials;
- Developing new channels of communication and dialog;
- Establishing partnerships and cooperation with potential partners;
- Remaining an efficient and effective non-profit organization (thinking and planning strategically);
- Reaching the financial resources needed (fundraising strategy, donors and supporters) in order to plan, develop and implement accordingly.
Our evaluation criteria:
- Impact: young people learn to ask and go beyond the surface; learning and stimulating others to learn, thinking and acting value based
- Strong leadership: a local organization, with a local board that turned and developed a grassroots initiative to a non-profit model organization
- Organizational effectiveness: an active board (9 members), a solid volunteers group and team (40 young people at early 20’s, and 2 half time job employees it is an example of non-profit effectiveness , reaching to thousands of students)
- Innovation: using informal Jewish education methodology, educational materials and tools that are people oriented, interactive and stimulation based approach (think further…)
- Sustainability: an organization that have a platform of diverse resources and set up the standard for accountability, transparency, development, innovation and effectiveness in Hungary’s Jewish community and civil society.
How You can help!
Volunteer! We are always in need of the assistance of educators, and we are happy to accept any other help for the implementation of our projects. Should You wish to volunteer please contact us at: haver@haver.hu
Donate! Although volunteers are not paid, Haver does cost money. We greatly appreciate any financial support, because such contributions make our long-term operation possible.
For additional information please contact Mircea Cernov, Haver Foundation CEO at:
mircea.cernov@haver.hu or +36 30 2225559.
If You wish to give us a financial support, please use the following bank account:
UniCredit Bank Hungary Zrt.
SWIFT (BIC): BACXHUHB
Euro bank account number: HU02 1091 8001 0000 0012 3367 0019
Thank You!
