Fwd: A personal invitation

[Tatjana Meschede]

Dear all -

this event may be of interest to members of this group.

Hope you are all doing well as well as possible.

Warmly, Tatjana

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Joel Obermayer <jo...@obermayer.us>
Date: Wed, Apr 14, 2021 at 11:51 AM
Subject: A personal invitation
To: <mesc...@brandeis.edu>
Cc: Kurt Pressman <kurt.p...@gmail.com>

Dear Tatjana,

I was recently speaking with Kurt Pressman. He mentioned that you might be interested in an event we have coming up. It will include a pair of incredibly impressive women who do remembrance, reconciliation, and anti-prejudice work in Germany. I’ve included the invite below.  Let me also give you just a little background about my organization.

Widen the Circle was founded in 2019 to expand on the two-decade legacy of the Obermayer Awards. This annual event honors community activists in Germany who are raising awareness of Jewish history and culture to fight hatred, prejudice, and anti-Semitism. (The awards were founded by my father Arthur Obermayer who lived for many years in Newton.) Widen the Circle has three additional programs:

• The Widen the Circle Network (located in Germany) is a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration on remembrance work and combating prejudice.
• The Visiting Program brings small groups of thought leaders from the United States on annual immersive experiences in Berlin to look at modern issues of prejudice in new ways.
• Bridge-Building connects educators and activists in the U.S. and Germany who harness the power of local history projects to combat prejudice in their communities.

You can get a good sense of what we're up to via this 3-minute video: widenthecircle.org/our-story.

I hope you will consider joining us at next week's event.

Best,

Joel

Finding Reconciliation and Fighting Prejudice Join us for an intimate conversation with two Obermayer Award winners who use history as a foundation for action. One has furthered the cause of healing and reconciliation; the other helps a new generation see how history underpins hate and anti-Semitism in the world today. Both are countering the rising tide of prejudice and right-wing nationalism. Friederike Fechner A professional cellist from the Baltic port city of Stralsund. She went on a life-changing quest to find out what happened to the Jewish family that lived in a building she and her husband renovated. Sabeth Schmidthals A high-school history teacher in Berlin whose students are largely from immigrant families. She uses the lessons of Nazi era history to empower her students to combat prejudice today.   Wednesday, April 21, 2-3 pm EST (U.S.) / 8 pm CET (Germany)    Please RSVP by April 19 to: Maya Weisinger at ma...@obermayer.us   Follow @WidentheCircle  Combating hate starts with a shared understanding of the past.

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Tatjana Meschede, Ph.D. (she/her) Faculty Page
Associate Director, Institute for Economic and Racial Equity (IERE, formerly IASP)

Senior Scientist, The Center for Youth in Communities (CYC)

Senior Lecturer, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management

Brandeis University

I acknowledge that Brandeis University, where I work, occupies unceded Nipmuc and Massachusett lands.