For the past 9 years, the JICC has been, together with Mosaica Center for Conflict Resolution and the Community Work Service at the Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs and Services, a key partner in organizing the annual conference of the Israeli Community Dialogue and Mediation Centers. This year, the conference took place on October 27 at Tel-Aviv University. It included 540 participants, 9 workshops and 7 discussion areas.
Conference opening
This year, we, too, presented in the workshops. Michal Shilor, our Coordinator of the Grassroots Campaign for Tolerance, spoke about activism for tolerance in the public sphere. She also spoke about the unique processes that are taking place in Jerusalem, such as the Municipality’s adoption of Zion Square as Tolerance Square, the success of A Different Day in Jerusalem (celebrating Jerusalem’s diversity) and more. She asked participants to think of potential ideas that can be implemented in their own hometowns. They ranged from Facebook pages and Internet sites to TED talks and escape rooms. We’ll definitely be following to see how they turn out!
Michal – activism for tolerance in the public sphere
Aliza Shabo-Hayut, our Director of Community Dialogue, spoke, together with the Community Social Worker of the Gilo neighborhood, on how to use Facebook as a community-building tool. They described how, when done thoughtfully, complete and meaningful discussions can be held, and community decisions can even be made, through Facebook. They also presented a number of ethical issues encountered when using Facebook as a community-building tool – such as, when is it appropriate for a community professional to step into a discussion among residents? or, if much of the discussion takes place on the weekends, when the community professional isn’t working, is it her responsibility to be on line and, essentially, on the job?
Here’s the Facebook post (in Hebrew) about the conference:
