May, 2016

Pioter found out he’s Jewish only ten years ago, and since than he found a welcoming home in the Jewish community where he also works with ever since. Ina, teaching her father to light the Hanukah candles, after he lived most of his life under a communist regime. Ruben, who was born to a Tunisian immigrant family in Paris, and was facing hostility and anti-semitism throughout his life.

Each of these stories is unique, and is only one piece of a larger patchwork that connects the current European Jewish story. How are our stories, journeys, and lessons relevant to our present Jewish story? How can stories reflects the voice of European Jewry today? Is there a voice for European Jewry today? Stories and narratives shape the way we remember our past, interpret our present and imagine our future. Storytelling can empower Jewish Europeans to shape Europe and the world around them, according to their past, present, and the future they would like to create to themselves. 

Our shared Jewish identity and appreciation for storytelling will be at the heart of the next conference by JDC Junction Europe, I had the pleasure to work on during my placement. The conference is called D&A, that stands for “definitions and answers” or DNA. Being able to both ask questions and provide answers, may enable us to define and redefine our Jewish narrative. This process of redefinition is in the DNA, the lifeblood, of Judaism and its culture. “Ours is not a blood-line, but a text-line”, write Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger, in their book “Jews and Words”, where they define the essence of the Jewish people as the written word. 

The seminar will serve as a platform for discussion and debate surrounding pressing questions of today, such as what it means to be Jewish in Europe, how the world views European Jewry, and what inspires Jews to live and thrive in Europe. We designed a process in which the participants will go through, searching for the Story of Self, trying to answer questions such as why is storytelling important? and what is your story? They will move on to ask what is the Story of Us: What relationship do we as individuals have to this larger context? And finally - the Story of Now: How does my story influence or affect my life, my community, and the world? How can storytelling empower me to shape Europe and the world around me?

Today more than ever it is so important to shape the way the contemporary Jewish narrative is told in Europe. Being Jewish in Europe is not about the number of Jews who live in Europe, but the number of questions on what it means to be Jewish and the huge number of answers there are in contemporary Europe. We’re at the time we discuss those questions and answers and it’s something the rest of the Jews should be looking at. As long as we keep on writing the jewish story, the story is alive. 

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