Haver Informal Jewish Educational Public Benefit Foundation
The word „Haver” means friend in Hebrew just as in Hungarian.
Mission and Goals
Haver Informal Jewish Educational Public Benefit Foundation mission is to foster Hungarian-Jewish dialog, eradicate Antisemitism and spread tolerance through informal education. The foundation fulfills its mission through educational activities, seminars, publications, exhibitions, and exchange programs targeted at Hungarian and Jewish youth and leaders. (click here to see the Haver volunteers team)
Haver Foundation is working towards a democratic, diverse, inclusive Hungary to guarantee the peaceful coexistence of its people and citizens. With a Jewish population of over 100,000, Hungary is a major center of Jewish life in the world and is the largest center of Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe.
With the largest Jewish community in Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary is an ideal country in which to develop a concentrated program to encourage tolerance and understanding, of Judaism and other differences. We have a chance to make a difference now when the situation is critical, when the level of intolerance and Antisemitism reached a very high level. We do a lot with a little due to our large volunteer base. And those who are involved not only serve the mission of Haver, but also increase their level of Jewish identity and Jewish knowledge at the same time.
The Founders of the Haver Informal Jewish Educational Public Benefit Foundation are young Hungarians both Jews and non-Jews who wish to reach out to young people in the spirit of the name they chose: friendship and open dialog. They believe that by organizing and conducting open discussions, lectures and educational activities 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 tolerance.
Harmadik generáció from Haver Foundation on Vimeo.
Needs we address
In Hungary Antisemitism and anti-Semitic discourse has unfortunately a long and continuous history. Anti-Semitic phenomena can be seen in many different forms: 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.
There are a number of indicators related to the problems, needs and necessity of our work:
- Political situation in Hungary (antisemitic groups becoming political elite, getting access to state resources and receiving institutional support);
- Critical thinking and debate culture is not part of the educational system in Hungary;
- Holocaust denial is just an every day reality in Hungary;
- Majority of people being passive, moderate political elite closing eyes, intellectuals (including Jewish ones) and public opinion influencer’s are inactive;
- The classical and old Jewish institutional establishment is not open for dialog and do not provide a platform for young people to contribute and be engaged;
- A big number of research works and academic studies are dealing with the mentioned subjects;
- The reaction, feedback and evaluation we received;
- The analysis and evaluations made by us.
A non-profit organization established in 2002, Haver Foundation stands with individuals and educational organizations and institutions – mostly high schools and universities – to promote a diverse and inclusive society in Hungary. Haver works to combat prejudice and discrimination and to promote social cohesion through dialogue, training, education and advocacy.
We aim to start an open and honest discussion and dialog between Jews and non-Jews that leads to tolerance and common understanding. It is essential to give special attention to the colorful modern Jewish life of the 21st century.
Only a thoughtful youth open to diversity can repel the tendency 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.
We reach five thousand high school students, university students and educators yearly, and provide them a wide range of educational activities and programs.
The educational sessions and activities, which includes subject-specific modules on Shoa, anti-Semitism and Jewish identity forms, is designed in the spirit of anti-prejudice and diversity education: to facilitate dialogue and sharing of experiences in the area of religion and culture; to recognize, respect and understand religious, cultural and identity diversity; to confront prejudice and discrimination and to develop individual skills and institutional strategies for creating inclusive inter-cultural environments.
Activities
The Haver Foundation team has developed educational modules adapted for three main target groups – young people (aged 14-18), university students (19 – 25) and educators – complementing our broader anti-prejudice diversity educational programs, these module focus on some of the specific cultural, religious and social issues that confront Hungarian society today.
Objectives
- To raise participants’ awareness of the uniqueness of each individual’s religious identity
- To facilitate dialog and the sharing of experiences in the area of religion and culture
- To increase participants’ understanding of the concepts and issues related to religious, cultural and identity diversity
- To enable participants to recognize contemporary manifestations of stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination related to religion, culture and identity
- To develop individual skills for creating inclusive inter-cultural environments
- To develop a critical thinking attitude and approach
- Above all, to develop the motivation within each individual to be tolerant, understanding and accepting of other religions and cultures
Those participating in educational sessions and activities for adult educators will receive manuals containing pedagogical tools for use in their own educational and community contexts.
Educational Activities and Modules
- Holocaust Memorial programs and activities
- Discussions with Holocaust survivors and memories of the Holocaust
- Classes on Jewish tradition and Jewish culture
- Jewish neighborhood, educational sessions on Jewish life: past and present
- Café Dilemma round table discussions: ethical and moral issues
- Classes of Tolerance
- Photovoice: how do you see Jewish Budapest?
- Hungarian-Jewish Youth meetings
- Difficult Questions: Q&A sessions on sensitive issues related to Hungarian-Jewish dialogue (historical, cultural and society issues)
- Teacher-training
- Educational materials and tools development
- Producing of films, animation series and comics series
- Contests, educational competitions, film-clubs
The methodology is highly interactive and participatory – using the approach and tools of informal Jewish education – building upon participants’ experience to address practical situations.
The credibility of the Jewish voice, represented by the volunteer educators of Haver Foundation, is probably the most relevant success story of the organization. Nine young people living in Hungary established the grassroots organization in 2002. More than two hundred followed them. Many of them are building today their own careers, have families and children. The connection with Haver is still alive for many of them. Today a group of forty volunteer educators are active. The nine founders continue to be involved and contribute to the work and development of the foundation. Thousands of Hungarian young people and high school teachers are thinking today differently about Jewish people, Jewish tradition, community and history. The Shoa have a different meaning for many of them. The history lesson has a meaning in today reality.
Schools and teachers continue to invite us and give a space to our informal education programs and activities. In many cases we develop strong cooperation and partnerships, and return every year to meet the new students. The knowledge, commitment and engagement of the Haver volunteers continue to be highly recognized.
Haver Foundation function and it is alive as a hub for connecting, studying, developing and teaching. As a real Jewish Peoplehood organization – Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews, Conservative, Neolog, Secular and Cultural Jews are becoming Haver Jews – is a platform for people living in different dimensions, having different believes and thoughts, and in the same time behaving and acting as a family. The old narratives that are related to power, influence, money and positioning inside the Jewish Community, are not relevant in the frame and platform of Haver Foundation. The opposition to the old establishment is not the driving force of our existence. That might be – and for sure there are – many things that will good to change in the old system. With all that we believe that the new age is about credibility, commitment, accountability, transparency, innovation, dialog and contribution to a better community and a better world. We choose to deal with the challenge of teaching dialog, critical thinking and debate. We do this not just based on theoretical and methodological knowledge and tools, but also trough our personal stories and example.
Target Audience and Partners
High school students, university students and teachers. In the same time our volunteers and educators are in our priority focus and can be considered target audience too. Critical thinking education and tolerance education is first of all by knowing ourselves better and than opening to know other better. It is about curiosity, the wish to know and understand, t is about asking and listening. If just part of the people we meet are changing their attitude, way of thinking and behaving, and if just part of them will see and understand “the Jews” differently, we feel, we made the difference.
We work in partnership with a number of community organizations and NGO’s. The Haver Foundation also its serving as a model for people in Romania (in 2009 Haver Association Romania was established), and for the Roma/Gypsy community in Hungary (a Roma informal education project is ongoing at the moment). Centropa, Open Society Institute, Kurt Lewin Foundation, Marom, Limmud Hungary, Golem Theatre, Mobilitas, the Association For Ethnical and Religious Minorities Rights in Hungary, ELTE University, more that 150 high schools – all are partners with us, and the we continue to develop relations and partnerships with other organizations.
Working with volunteers, bringing our personal stories and examples, in the frame of dialog we build. A permanent development of new channels and tools, activities and educational materials – all this make us different, and made us possible to made a difference.
Evaluation
Evaluation and feedback is permanent and we define it as an indispensable value. We are about dialog, critical thinking and debate. We can remain credible just by doing permanent evaluation of our work and getting feedback from the field. Students, teachers and partner organizations activists are requested to complete different questionnaires and feedback forms, witch once we received are evaluating and analyzing. We invite experts and in the field to supervise our work and revised our educational materials. We are also educating ourselves permanently and follow the latest developments related to our work and field.
We continue to run our evaluation and feedback system, and continue to develop the tools and criteria for a better understanding of the impact of our work and ways to improve our effectiveness and efficiency. We use questionnaires, feedback forms, online platforms (website, facebook), organize workshops and meetings with students and teachers.
Foundation Future
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 (8) and educators (40) are working together and thus contribute to achieve the vision, mission and goals of the organization. Taking into consideration the context of today’s situation in Hungary, this is an outstanding achievement on capacity building and community development.
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.
Outreaching to more young Jewish people it is a high priority on our agenda, with a permanent focus on offering possibilities for participation, education, engagement and empowerment.
Two new programs are in the early stage of implementation:
- Haver Association Romania; based on the model developed by us in Hungary a group of young Jews from Romania are building their own organizational frame and educational activities. We offer organizational, management and educational know-how, educational materials, coaching, mentoring, training and network building;
- Roma (Gypsy) Initiative; the educational team of Haver Foundation, together with a number of new volunteers work in partnership and cooperation with a group of young Hungarian Roma people. Together they start developing new platforms and frames of educational activities and dialog on Hungarian – Roma issues.
Haver and the Young Jewish Community
For much of Jewish history all Jews have defined themselves (or more accurately, have been defined) as belonging to the Jewish community. Today however we have a different reality. In the contemporary world Jews must choose consciously and voluntarily to belong to a Jewish community which itself needs to attract people to belong to it by providing services which are seen to answer needs. The community structure in most places has become a framework which struggles to attract Jews. The Jews themselves have become consumers of community services.
Part of the education of young Jews should include an understanding of the history and dynamics of the Jewish community to help them appreciate the community that surrounds them and to encourage them to see it as a positive entity that in their deepened understanding and heightened awareness, they might wish to join and in which they might want to play an active part.
The platform and frame of work at Haver Foundation was developed into an educational environment that provides a new perspective on the Jewish community and of encouraging deepening involvement of the individual with their own community.
In Hungary, where understanding of the Middle East is simply nonexistent, Haver plays an even more important role that simply sensitizing young Hungarians to the Holocaust. We also act as one of the most effective Israel advocacy organizations working in the country today.
What makes Haver different is not just the combating of Antisemitism; it is the fact that we are also building a vital Jewish community by giving young Jews a sense of meaning and purpose. By taking Szarvas Jewish Camp graduates as role models, and stimulating others to join, we give them even more meaning in their lives, as they understand that volunteering and taking responsibility, being engaged is something they must do to build their communities.
The outreach process we create here, it is strong and stable, young people committing themselves to the Jewish cause.
Haver Informal Jewish Educational Public Benefit Foundation
Founder
Dr. József Schweitzer
President of the Board
Eszter Lányi
Board members
Tamás Doffek, Zsuzsa Fritz, Levente Kovács, Edina Schön, Anikó Verő, Tamás Verő, Luca Illy, Dr. Judit Mandl
Supervisory Committee members
András Borgula president, Zsófia Heuduska, Gerold Korner
Volunteers – Educators team
CEO
Mircea Cernov
Address
Budapest 1075, Károly krt. 25. I/4.
Tel./Fax: +36 1 785234
For additional information please contact
Mircea Cernov, Haver Foundation CEO at: mircea.cernov@haver.hu or +36 30 2225559 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +36 30 2225559 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
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!
Quotes. Students & teachers about Haver
R.S., teacher
“I liked the educational activity of Haver, it enlightened the children, focused on preventing stereotypes and we got to know that it is completely acceptable to be open about who you are, and people shouldn’t be ashamed of this. It was an excellent lesson for them.”
M.T., student (16)
“I think it was good, especially the part when we had to choose from those pictures and tell who is Jewish and who is not. This made things clear in my opinion. The part when we had to split into these groups with the spots on our foreheads was also good, the “exclusion” of Laci became obvious for a lot of us and we’ve realized this at the point when we started to talk about it.”
R.Sz., student (15)
“I liked that part the most when we had to sit down in groups and we had to decide and argue about those descriptions. I regret that there were not more people coming from the foundation, it could have been interesting for us to hear other opinions as well, but altogether it was quite interesting.”
L.B., student (16)
“I liked the program of Haver foundation very much. It was interesting and a little bit weird in the same time when we had to find our groups with those spots, everyone could get an experience how does it feel like to be alone. I found the part when we had to define Judaism much more challenging, I would have chosen many different explanations not only one. I liked it because we could learn a lot of new things about Judaism.”
I.G., student (17)
“I found the lecture of Haver foundation very interesting because I’ve been interested in the religion, tradition and history of Jews even before this lecture. It was very good that we could get into arguments, and had the opportunity to convince each other. It was useful when we were looking at those pictures and everyone was trying to figure out who is Jewish and most of us were focusing on the beard, the color of the skin and stuff, then we had to realize that it is quite impossible to tell who is Jewish.”
E.B., student (17)
“I think it was good that the guy who facilitated the lecture was nice and open and because of this people could loosen up and enjoy themselves. For me it was useful because I haven’t been thinking about topics like these before and moreover I got to know what my schoolmates think of these things.”
Gy.D., student (16)
“I think it was instructive, I liked it that it was more of a conversation. What I did not like is that some people were talking way too much… but I liked it anyway! J”
see also: http://www.jta.org/trackback/3087946/
