"Reframe and Remember" Youth Exchange

On the 23rd of August, five Bedouin and five Jewish students left Ben Gurion airport bound for Magdeburg, Germany. For some of the students in the group, this was their first trip outside of their home country. This began a week-long program built as a collaboration between A New Dawn and Internationaler Jugendaustausch (IJGD) . The ten Israeli students and ten German students worked towards a photography exhibit to be held at the end of the week.

Exploring Storytelling through Photography

The exchange struck a balance between learning practical photographic techniques and exploring a variety of topics surrounding the unique relationship between Germany and Israel, the history of the Holocaust and minorities in Europe. Students enjoyed in excursions into the countryside, participated in a photography scavenger hunt and took a day trip into Berlin to visit memorials and museums dedicated to Jewish, Roma and Sinti minorities persecuted during the Holocaust. The discussions emerging from these experiences reinforced the unique beauty of collecting such a diverse group of students together and giving them a safe space in which to explore these complex, difficult and deeply personal issues. The relationships emerging from the exchange give us a great deal of excitement as we look toward the future.

Excited for the Future

This program was designed as a two-part exchange with the German students slated to visit Israel in the spring of 2014. We are excited by the success of the exchange on August and are working hard to work out the logistic and financial details of bringing this group together again next year.