BOND

Workshops have been developed by BOND, to create a safe space for constructive dialogue about specific themes by engaging with four distinct learning styles. Ultimately, these dialogue workshops are intended to foster empathy and understanding, contributing to reduced divisions and perceptions, stronger community bonds, and improved communication patterns.

Background

Dialogue is a communication process that aims to build relationships between people as they share experiences, ideas, and information about a particular theme or common concern. It serves to broaden understanding of difficult themes by directing attention to listening, learning, and sharing personal experiences.

The major aim of the dialogue and roundtable activities is to bridge the divide between Jewish and other religious and ethnic groups by fostering open and safe dialogue and interaction and building intergroup coalitions and strategies. The main objectives are to reduce the perception gap of antisemitism between the Jewish population and the general public; to share experiences and identify common challenges between members of different religious- ethnic- and community groups and to foster inter-faith and inter-group alliances, coalitions, and strategies in local communities.

Dialogue Workshops: Kolb’s Learning Styles

Educational theorist David Kolb identified four distinct learning styles and introduced the concept of the learning cycle as a way for educators to understand how people learn in different ways:

• Concrete Experience
• Reflective Observation
• Abstract Conceptualization
• Active Experimentation

Experiential Learning Workshops build on Kolb’s insights by designing a learning experience in which participants touch on each of these learning styles, maximizing the potential for constructive dialogue. Each individual dialogue workshop takes approximately 1 ½ to 2 hours for a group of 12-20. With larger groups, facilitators should plan for a longer period of time with a break in between.

Round Tables

The roundtable discussion is a conversation aimed to shed light on a specific topic. Usually, a group of experts or practitioners are brought together to share different perspectives, in order to reach a more comprehensive understanding of the subject. It’s the role of the moderator to facilitate the discussion, ensuring that a variety of perspectives and ideas are presented and discussed. In addition to the panel of experts, there is an audience present who may simply observe or participate more actively by asking questions, or engaging in small group discussions.

Roundtable discussions are great for having conversations about opposing viewpoints on the same topic. Both participants and speakers will gain new perspectives and information from every discussion.

Summary

The overall aim of the BOND project is to address prejudices, hateful attitudes and behaviors in society, in particular towards the Jewish communities, and promote tolerance, understanding and dialogue across groups and sectors in society. The objective of the dialogue sessions and roundtables is to bridge the divide between Jewish and other religious and ethnic groups, fostering open and safe dialogue and interaction, and building intergroup coalitions and strategies. Specifically, the dialogue workshops described here address the themes of dignity, marginalization, hidden/latent conflict, negative and positive peace, trauma and trauma healing, dialogue skills, and the work to build collaborative partnerships.

By engaging with the living experience and emotions of participants, there is a higher likelihood for empathy across differences and a healthier and safer space for constructive dialogue.

The result will be a stronger bond, more empathy, and deeper, more meaningful dialogue. Because of the foundation of experience and empathy, participants will build a stronger sense of trust to open up about other points of view based on other life experiences or a different group identity. This foundation of trust is essential for the dialogue sessions to more constructively deal with these that can be scary or threatening, especially to marginalized group members.

Finally, the conclusions, strategies and recommendations that come out of the roundtables and dialogue sessions will be compiled in a “Handbook on community measures for social inclusion, understanding, and tolerance (D4.2)”. To enhance the impact of the action, these recommendations will be disseminated widely, particularly directed towards local and national authorities in the participating countries.

Keywords

Antisemitism, racism, education, school, report, Poland, Italy, hungary

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Links

Web: bond-project.eu

Mail: office@bond-project.eu

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Studio Romantic / Shutterstock