Shalompodden

We proudly present Shalompodden by two Swedes living in Israel, Sandra Weil and Jonatan Macznik, produced by Simon Moser. Sandra and Jonatan are in this podcast giving space to voices and stories from within Israel that are not present in the official and polarized narrative.

In the first episode Rula Daood from the organization Standing Together is sharing her experiences from growing up in Israel as a Palestinian Israeli. Rula also talks about the effects of boycot against culture. The second episode focuses on Naomi Fortis work in Jerusalem, she tells the story about the creation of Feel Beit, a place for all people to meet through culture and about how to regain trust when all is broken. The podcast is in Swedish.

Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) was initiated in 1994 by the frenchman Philippe Saugier as a reaction to the damaged ozone layer. Today it is part of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) at its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, and it is engaging over 500,000 young reporters from 44 countries. The aim of the programme is to mentor and equip young people in the ages 11–25 to research and report on environmental issues, to drive change in their local communities and beyond. The young reporters can also submit their cases to national and international “YRE competitions”. Entries are assessed by professional juries and the most inspiring, well-researched entries are recognised on a global scale.

                      As a member of FEE, Ecoocean since 2013 operates a YRE programme in Israel, and every year, around 1,000 budding reporters from Jewish and Arabic schools all over Israel, participate in the program. Those who want to join are trained together with their teacher in school by Ecooceans’s educators, and it becomes a part of their daily education. They learn how to research, create content and communicate through channels such as videos and articles, material which then hopefully can influence people in power to act. And so far, submissions from the young reporters in Israel, to the international YRE competition, have won 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in different categories each year.

                      “We provide material and teach them the tools, we can even bring young reporters on board our research vessel to take samples at sea, but it is also important to mention that all our work is “fact based”. We do not rely on social media for source material. We scientifically show them how to conduct research using facts, and this is in itself an important target for the YRE programme,” says Ecoocean CEO, Arik Rosenblum, and continues:

                      “We consider Ecoocean to be an inclusive organisation, for all citizens. And through suport, such as from The Robert Weil Family Foundation, we have been able to invest in becoming a truly bi-cultural organisation. This means that we go beyond knowledge of different languages but also cultures, and this enables us to work in all communities. The environment does not know borders so working together across geographical and cultural borders is the only way to resolve environment issues. It is also the reason why we have initiated a continuation of the YRE programme, one which we call Youth United for the Environment (YUE).

                      Having worked in Jewish and non Jewish communities, both Israeli and Palestinian, the next logical step for Ecoocean has been to try and bring these together to collectively identify and create awareness on shared environmental issues. In their new YUE programme, Schools are approached, engaged, and those between the age of 11-15 who feel motivated, participate. The national coordinator of the YRE and YUE programs, Jasmine Mawasi, explains it like this:

                      “Communities that border to each other might be separated by faith, but the fact is that they also share issues, they might for example both be situated along the same polluted river. So we first work on an issue simultaneously in two separate groups of Arabic and Jewish heritage. We then bring these groups together and make them sit and work on how to create awareness about the issue collectively. The most important part here is that we have brought them together around a common issues. It is an issue about the environment, but it is also the opportunity to talk about other issues, like why we do not know each other better. In this work we are sensitive to where the respective participants come from, and this is a challenge but also very rewarding.”

                      After much preparation, Ecooceans’s new YUE programme was set to launch at the first day of school on 8th of October 2023, but everything changed the day before.

                      “Everyone went through a state of shock on October 7th, and we as an organisation first had to spend time with our staff. While rockets were flying we thought about what we could do, how we could deal with ourselves and others. After a while we slowly picked up the conversation with our potential partners in the YUE programme and heard their thoughts. Does a school in an Arab community feel comfortable to meet a school with Jewish kids? And most importantly, how could such a meeting be arranged so that all children felt safe? This was a whole process that took around eight months to determine.” says Arik.

                      “We had initially hoped to create six YUE groups, but today we are glad to say that we actually are running seven groups nationwide, with a total of 210 participants.” concludes Jasmine.

                      Ecoocean’s new Youth United for the Environment programme have already outdone itself in numbers. And while the actual results are yet to be published on plattforms at the end of this school year, things certainly seems to look brighter not only for the local environment but also for the communities.

That is the core message of It’s Time – an unprecedented coalition of 60 Israeli peacebuilding and shared society organizations. On May 8-9, the coalition hosted the People’s Peace Summit in Jerusalem, bringing together thousands of people to envision and advance a peaceful future in the region. For the second consecutive year, the Robert Weil Family Foundation was a proud supporter of the summit.

Are genuine exchanges across religious traditions possible in today’s social climate? The answer might just be revealed at the Jewish Museum in Stockholm on May 8. Meet Catherine Cornille, professor in theology at Boston College, in conversation with Jakob Wiren, Adjunct Professor and theological advisor to the Swedish Archbishop, and Erika Hedenström, Director of the Jewish Museum. The Robert Weil Family Foundation proudly co-hosts the event.

Apply now!

Your future can begin at Beckmans Night Classes. This is a scholarship for you who have applied or will apply to one of the three night classes; Form, Fashion or Visual Communication at Beckmans Kvällsskola. The Robert Weil Family Foundation have launched Designstipendiet to make it possible also for those for whom Beckmans is maybe not the obvious choice, to attend the school. The scholarship covers the fee of sek 37 000.

Application open untill 15 June 2025

Gadi Gvaryhau is the founder of the Israeli organisation Tag Meir, which work against racism and violence to strengthen democracy in the Israeli society. Tag Meir organizes trips to families that are struck by terror, to enable representatives from all parts of society to pay their respects and mourn together. Ranging from public demonstrations and educational programmes, its activities engages voices of different religious backgrounds and ethnicity across Israel. Listen to Gadi Gvaryhau talk about the work of Tag Meir and his views on the road to peace. The talk is in English, moderated by Gabriella Ahlström and takes place at the Proventus office on 27th of Mars, 18.00-19.30.

After 15 years of unwavering suport and shared joy through the written word, The Robert Weil Family Foundation has decided to end its partnership with Berättarministeriet (Ministry of Storytelling). The decision to part is grounded in the fact that Berättarministeriet today has grown into a nationwide organisation that stands firmly on its own two feet with a rich variety of funders, not least from public institutions. 

In the fall of 2009 a group of people, all deeply concerned about the rampant polarisation in society, gathered at Proventus office in Stockholm. They discussed the growing income gaps, unemployment, and how children that grow up in a socially disadvantaged environment are affected by these aspects. Drawing inspiration from the American movement 826 National, founded by the writer Dave Eggers, an idea was born to create an organisation in Sweden that could help youngsters to express themselves through the written word. In the year 2025 it is clear that this discussion resulted in something extraordinary.

Berättarministeriet, which we made possible together with Dilsa Demirbag-Sten and Sven Hagströmer, is today a well-established organisation and an important stakeholder in the work to strengthen our democratic society. Starting out in 2011 with an educational centre in Södertälje, Berättarministeriet has expanded with a nationwide programme and centres in Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg. The organisation has consistently navigated according to its own clear compass, gradually creating a solid platform that makes a real difference to a great many people, and that will last for the future.

“Our feelings are mixed, it will be sad to see Berättarministeriet head for new adventures without us, but we are also immensely proud of what we have achieved together”, Robert Weil states.

“For their steadfast nonviolent resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation, promoting Palestinian civic action through peaceful means.”

Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights activist who has dedicated his life to peaceful resistance against Israeli occupation in the West Bank city of Hebron. Together with the activist group he founded, Youth Against Settlements (YAS), he has become a leading voice in the non-violent movement, striving to create a future where Palestinians live freely and with dignity. His efforts have garnered international recognition, and his strict commitment to non-violence stands in stark contrast to the violent realities of the Israeli occupation.

Amro and YAS have successfully mobilised local communities and international allies to resist the ongoing Israeli occupation through peaceful means. YAS plays an essential role in documenting human rights violations, organising protests, and supporting local communities in Hebron who live under constant threats and attacks from Israeli settlers and military forces. The group’s initiatives have also served as an inspiration for non-violent resistance in other Palestinian cities under Israeli occupation.

Amro and the group have been under constant pressure from settlers, the Israeli military and also the Palestinian Authority. Amro has been detained, tortured, attacked on the streets, evicted from home and subjected to judicial harassment. However, he has kept his unwavering commitment to non-violent resistance, which he sees as the only way to achieve justice and peace for the people of Palestine.

The Robert Weil Family Foundation are proud supporters of the documentary ISSA’S HOUSE.

Hopefully ready to screen in spring 2025 the film centers around Issa Amro, who has dedicated his life to protecting a house in Hebron. Together with a small group, he guards the home day and night. Issa is a well-known Palestinian civil rights activist and practitioner of non-violent resistance who was in 2010 nominated “human rights defender of the year in Palestine” by the UN. He is also the founder of the Youth Against Settlements (YAS) organization, a group that advocates against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. In ISSA’S HOUSE, Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann is granted unprecedented access to Issa and YAS—not just as a journalist or a documentarian, but as a friend in unity.
 
The house that Issa and YAS protect is the last Palestinian-owned property in the Israeli-controlled H2 section of Hebron next to Shuhada Street in the Old City. Also known as “Apartheid Street,” Shuhada Street is the main road leading to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and was once a bustling market place and central location for the Hebron region. After decades of political unrest, the street is now permanently closed to Palestinians. Issa’s house covers the last few centimeters that messianic Settlers must occupy in order to close the gap and create an “Arab-free zone.” At a critical juncture in the troubled history of Israeli democracy, Issa and his friends pose an existential threat to the entire narrative of the occupation.
 
Non-violent resistance is a concept so radical that only its true practitioners understand the full weight of its ability to undermine systems of oppression. ISSA’S HOUSE tells their stories in their own voices.
 
Tomer Heymann, director and producer of Issa’s House, is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose career has spanned over two decades and includes some of the most successful films in the history of Israeli documentary cinema. His films are screened in festivals worldwide and have received prizes at the Berlinale, The Israeli Academy of Film and Television, Hot Docs, SXSW, and IDFA. His recent films include “Mr. Gaga: A True Story of Love and Dance” (2015), “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” (2016), “Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life” (2019), and “I Am Not” (2021).

The French journalist and filmmaker Claude Lanzmann (1925–2018) spent 12 years on making his documentary Shoha (1985). The Hebrew word Shoah which has been used in Israel since 1948, translates into “Catastrophe”, and is the equivalent to the American english term “Holocaust”. Instead of relying on archival footage, Lanzmann took it upon himself to search out survivors and perpetrators of the Holocaust, to get their testimonies on the Nazis’ methodical mass murder of Jews in Europe during the Second World War. And out of 185 hours of interviews and 35 hours of location filming, 9,5 hours was eventually edited into a comprehensive documentary.
 
Upon its world premiere in France in 1985, the French philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir wrote about Shoah: “I could never have imagined such an alliance of horror and beauty. Of course, one is not used to mask the other, nor is it a question of aestheticism: on the contrary, it highlights the other with such invention and rigour that we are aware of contemplating a great work. A pure masterpiece.” / Simone de Beauvoir
 
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum purchased the entire Shoah archival material from Claude Lanzmann on October 11, 1996. Since then this material has been meticulously reconstructed, preserved and made publicly available in its entirety. In 2023 Shoah was also inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. The purpose of this register is to work against collective neglect or deliberate destruction of documentarian material which is considered of significant and outstanding universal value.
 
In 2024 The Robert Weil Family Foundation was approached by Folkets Bio to acquire the rights to screen the newly restored version of Shoah in Sweden. And so now: 40 years after it had its first screening in Sweden, 80 years after Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, and the Second World War ended, Shoah will once again be available to a Swedish audience. To mark its first screening, The Robert Weil Family Foundation, Folkets Bio, The Swedish Holocaust Museum and ABF Stockholm presents Shoah with adjoining talks and lectures about the film. Shoah will thereafter be available for cinemas, schools and institutions throughout Sweden.
 
Quotes
“Shoah is one of the most important documentaries in film history, and the fact that it has now been newly restored and can once again be presented to the Swedish audience feels both important and urgent. Shoah will be presented in its entirety, but also with an updated leaflet and supporting material.” / Folkets Bio
 
“In a time of increased polarisation, where anti-democratic forces are gaining ground, Shoah reminds us of: our own responsibility, that something can always be done, and that we together have the power to change.” / The Robert Weil Family Foundation
 
“The Holocaust is one of humanity’s greatest defeats. By trying to understand and not forget it, we can ensure that it never happens again.” / Calle Nathanson, CEO of ABF Stockholm.

The Association Claude & Felix Lanzmann

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
 
Unesco’s Memory of the World Register