REGIONAL OFFICE / USA
‘Promoting Tolerance’ Program for Young Leaders

First stop: Washington D.C.

Following a preliminary seminar in Sofia earlier in July and for the first time an integrated online-phase, the group of eleven went off to the US, together with the Coordinator for Regional dialog programs of the foundation’s regional office in Sofia, Dirk Steffes-tun.

The Promoting-Tolerance series has become one of the most important activities of the Regional office MSOE over the last fifteen years.. Almost 200 participants have gained an in-depth understanding of the American domestic politics and its dealing with minorities – and later transposed that knowledge in their home-countries.

Because many alumni of the program have since their participation obtained high-ranking governmental and business positions, the former Bulgarian participant Solomon Passi later became the foreign minister of his country for the next several years.

The 2007-group represented a various range of countries which are all overseen by the Regional office. The countries who have entered the European Union, the Western Balkans and Russia, but also the Southern Caucasus and Kyrgyzstan were represented.
With an average age of 30, the professional backgrounds included university lecturers, politicians and NGO-officials.

The study-trip started as usual in the capital Washington D.C. where Claus Gramckow, FNF representative for the USA and Canada, welcomed the group on the 4th of November. Rabbi Andrew Baker from the AJC, who has been engaged in the program from its very beginning, then introduced into the itinerary.

Participants in front of the capitol.

The program started on the following day with a visit of the Holocaust Memorial Museum followed by a discussion with Stephen Feinberg, Director of National Outreach for Teacher Initiatives Education. The participants showed a particular interest in the coming to terms with the Holocaust past and the suspense between an objective distance and a subjective emotion.

Afterwards, that same group undertook a guided sightseeing-tour with obligatory inspections of the main-attractions: White House and Capitol Hill. It also included visits of memorials of the WWII and the Korean- and the Vietnam-war, which were other examples of how America copes with its past.

Following the tour, the group was introduced to discussions with representatives of several pressure-groups. They presented important issues such as ethnic minorities, physically handicapped people, women’s rights activists and homosexuals. The visit of a Jewish theatre then allowed a reflection about the potential of cultural institutions to influence discussions in the society.

Debee Yamamoto (Japanese Americans Citizens League) and Hilary Shelton (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

After the stay in the capital with its emphasis on politics, it shifted to the American migration history in the second city on the agenda: New York. A tour to the traditional quarters for migrants Chinatown and Little Italy gave a good example about the ongoing dynamic of the metropolis to the Eastern European visitors. During a visit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the largest museum of its kind in the western hemisphere, the group was introduced to specific ethnic target groups by Donna Williams.

Discussions at the American Jewish Committee’s headquarters with AJC’s deputy director Shula Bahat and Steven Bayme, the director of the Contemporary Jewish Life Department, addressed the role of the Jewish population in the USA and the AJC’s mission.

Romanian participant Liviu Jicman visiting the museum at Ground Zero.

Following a stay of 1 ½ days in the “Big Apple” the participants were split into three different groups, departing to three different destinations: Miami, Phoenix and Boston where special programs were set up for them, which also included private contacts with officials and friends of the AJC. For most of the participants in the group, participating in Shabat-dinners and Jewish worships were their first personal contacts with Jewish life.

The group explores the immigration-history of New York.

From November 11 to 13 the group was reunited at their final destination in Los Angeles in California which also had a lot to offer. This included an insight into the film-industry for which Hollywood was known for globally. The attendance of two social projects, the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center which was introduced by a very popular director in the United States, Lori Jean, and the People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) institution were best-practice examples which caught a lot of attention by the participants.

The Bostong-group visiting a local police station, here together with police officers and local AJC-officials.

All of the group-members were enthusiastic about the past ten days when meeting for a debriefing in the Skirball Cultural Center. Liviu Jicman from Romania was impressed by the strong network of NGOs in the US: “We have laws and institutions for democracy, but must still develop a civil society that offers this kind of support. We have non-governmental agencies, but they are not as strong. I think it is something that will come as democracy progresses”, he argued.

And the Armenian Isabella Sargsyan added: “The discussion at the gay and lesbian center was very interesting, because we don’t have that much education on those issues at home. There are very few people who are openly gay or lesbian in Armenia, but things can be changed. Many things have changed during the past 30 years, so nothing is impossible.” She concluded: “For us, it is good input and a good thing to evaluate.”

FNF and AJC hope that the confrontation with the American model and its rich experiences in integrating migrants and minorities will guide the young leaders in their future careers.


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