Although unique, culturally the Roma, Armenians and Jews have much in common including the years of stereotyping and persecution they experienced.
A Europe of Diasporas is a project designed to bring these three communities together to collaborate, share years of learning and identify links to the general public. It should benefit the ‘core diaspora’ by offering mutual support to one another as well as contributing to mainstream communities through solidarity and by driving a positive role for diaspora.
There are two upcoming events to kickstart the project and encourage development between each of the diaspora:
6 February 2017 7.30 to 9.30pm: Presentation by Ruth Barnett who was born in Berlin in 1935. Ruth arrived in Britain at age four with her brother on the Kindertransport, the name of a series of rescue efforts bringing thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940. Ruth who is a psychotherapist speaks at schools about the tragic fate of Gypsies as well as Jews and how other minorities such as Armenians and Assyrians have suffered a similar fate and will be discussing the benefits of these three diasporas collaborating.
21 February 2017 6.30 to 9.30pm: A taster session of shared learning between the diasporas in Limmud style, which is a joint interactive series of learning events between communities, highly–successful within the Jewish Network worldwide.
There are only 50 spaces available. Email rutheclb@gmail.com, garen.arevian@gmail.com or sherrie.gateherts@gmail.com if you would like to attend the event. There will be refreshments and nibbles. See the flyer for more information.
A Europe of Diasporas was launched at a three–day conference in Paris in June 2015, followed by two more conferences in Budapest and Sofia. The findings and charter for diasporas were then presented to the European Parliament in Brussels in May 2016. The project is supported by a number of organisations (mainly IUJS, AGBU, and ERGO) with extra finance from Brussels. It started with 38 participants including equal numbers of Roma, Armenians and Jews from a wide range of countries and equal numbers of women and men.
Location
Gulbenkian Hall, Iverna Gardens, Kensington, London W8 6TP (nearest Underground Station: High Street Kensington)