PAST PROJECTS:

Golda Debattierclub

The Golda Debating Club is an innovative project that aims to train young Jewish people in the art of debating and strengthen their rhetorical skills. Named after Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, the club provides a platform for exchanging ideas and developing critical thinking.

Nevatim
European Januzs Korzak Academy
State Association of Jewish Communities of Westphalia-Lippe
Jewish Community of Düsseldorf
1700 JLID

Main features of the project:

Regular debates on current topics
Workshops to improve argumentation techniques
promoting intercultural dialogue
Strengthening Jewish Self-Confidence

The club is aimed at Jewish teenagers and young adults aged 14 to 35. It offers a unique opportunity to engage with complex issues, articulate one's own opinions and at the same time get to know other perspectives.
By collaborating with various Jewish organizations and communities, the Golda Debating Club creates a network that enables participants to network and exchange ideas beyond the boundaries of their local communities.

Golda

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Brain-Weekend Camp

Weekend camps are special programs that offer young people exciting insights and practical experience in various subject areas within a short period of time.

Moscow State University of Psychology and Education
Ruhr University Bochum
Ambulantikum

Weekend camps are special programs that offer young people exciting insights and practical experience in various subject areas within a short period of time. They are often thematically focused, e.g. IT, science, art or personal development. Through interactive workshops, exciting activities and exchanges with peers and experts, participants can develop new skills and expand their knowledge.

A big advantage of weekend camps is the mix of learning and fun. Young people can learn about jobs of the future, try out creative ideas and better discover their own interests. At the same time, such camps offer a strong sense of community that is created through shared learning and experiences.

Weekend camps are an ideal way to develop personal strengths in a short period of time, explore new topics and develop further in an inspiring environment.

BrainWeekend

YOUDE

Youde - is you. A channel, a platform and a safe space for everyone living in Germany. This is where intersections of our complex identities meet, where dialogues are held and encounters are made possible.

AWARD:

bfdt: 1st Prize for Democracy and Tolerance 2022
German Engagement Award 2022: Nomination

1700 JLID
BMI

Youde - you are you. A channel, a platform and a safe space for everyone living in Germany. This is where intersections of our complex identities meet, where dialogues are held and encounters are made possible. Diversity is what is on the agenda, fun and raising awareness is what results. We, a colorful team of Jewish and Muslim people, intend to use creative, playful and varied YouTube videos to enable people to exchange ideas and get to know each other, thus reducing prejudices and ignorance. Making marginalized groups visible first-hand and talking to each other instead of about each other are our guiding ideas. Our heart's desire is therefore clear: to oppose racism, anti-Semitism and tokenism in a self-determined manner and to make our contribution to a respectful society. Youde - we are Germany.

YOUDE

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Jüdische Märchen

"Storytelling is part of the Jewish DNA." The 12-part online theater tells Jewish fairy tales that represent the heart of the Jewish religion and tradition.

1700 JLID
BMI

Jüdische Märchen

Stimme der Frau

The project Voice of the Woman – Klezmer of Herne aims to unite and present Jewish history, Jewish places in the city and contemporary Jewish life.

PFDL Herne
Demokratie Leben

The music video we support artistically portrays the Jewish history of the city of Herne. The performance is accompanied by traditional Jewish music (Klezmer), which is played and filmed by a violinist at former sites of Jewish life. The project Voice of the Woman - Klezmer of Herne aims to unite and present Jewish history, Jewish sites in the city and contemporary Jewish life. The woman is a metaphor for "the city". The "Voice of a Woman" tells the story of the city and Jewish life in it using the most expressive artistic means - music.

Stimme der Frau

Zeitzeugen Theater - WIR

The core of the project is formed by the life and survival stories of contemporary witnesses during the Shoah. The survivors' narratives are repeated and passed on by a group of pupils. The eyewitness sequences are also accompanied by music and dramaturgy.

ZWST
EVZ
Aktion Mensch

Premiere of the second project location of the contemporary witness theater "WIR" In 2019, the contemporary witness theater project began in Frankfurt am Main. The premiere on February 2, 2020 will be staged in front of an audience of 500 spectators and will conclude with a preview of the accompanying documentary film "Now?", which will premiere in 2022. The project, originally planned for three years, has been successfully carried out for a year at another project location in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Due to the ongoing Corona pandemic, the team under Anton Tsirin has decided to make a film adaptation of the contemporary witness theater, which will be broadcast live on November 28, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. here on the ZWST Facebook channel.

The core of the project is the life and survival stories of contemporary witnesses during the Shoah. The survivors' narratives are repeated and passed on by a group of students. The contemporary witnesses' sequences are also accompanied by music and dramaturgical elements.

Zeitzeugen Theater - WIR

One Charming Night

"One Charming Night" is an autobiographical creation by Sagí Amir Gross that challenges stereotypes and places personal experiences at its core. The piece explores Jewish identity within a multicultural context.

1700 JLID
BMI
West German Dance Theater

The soundtrack blends various musical influences that reflect the choreographer's cultural background. The production portrays an ostensibly uniform society that gradually dissolves into individual expressions throughout the performance.

The work critiques a superficial Western society and makes a stand against anti-Semitism and stereotypes. Six performances are planned in different theaters, with a three-month preparation and rehearsal period.

The project is supported by both Jewish and non-Jewish institutions, including:

Jewish Communities of Düsseldorf and Hagen
City of Hagen
Emil Schumacher Museum
Makkabi Germany
Cultural Association Pelmke e.V.

One Charming Night

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Displacement: Morgen werde ich nicht sein

An innovative theater project in Düsseldorf explores displacement and modern memory culture in an era without direct eyewitnesses.

Jakob Teitel Academy
Democracy in Life
Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Düsseldorf e.V.
Jewish Communities: Essen, Düsseldorf
Dom Forum Cologne

This groundbreaking performance brings the life stories of Russian-Jewish refugees from the interwar period and the Holocaust into the spotlight for the first time. Based on carefully researched archival materials and personal documents, it unfolds a unique narrative experience.

The ensemble, made up of professional actors with migration backgrounds, embodies a series of fascinating historical figures, including Vera Nabokov, the wife of the famous writer; composer Artur Lurie; poet Ilija Britan; actor Alexander Murski; lawyer Alexis Goldenweiser; and agricultural scientist Dawid Brutzkus.

Elena Solominski (concept and dramaturgy) and Ivan Kuschnir (music), under the direction of Emilia Kivelevich, have created a captivating theater performance. "Displacement – Tomorrow I Will Not Be" is based on a variety of letters, memoirs, and texts from Russian-Jewish refugees in Germany from the 1920s to the 1960s.

The poignant title "Tomorrow I Will Not Be" comes from the farewell letter of poet Ilija Britan to his son Alexander. Written in the French camp of Drancy shortly before his murder, it underscores the deep tragedy and finality of the fate of many refugees of that time.

Displacement

So nah, so fern

Inclusion in the Cultural Program of the Central Council of Jews in Germany 2021.

Central Council of Jews in Germany
Jewish Communities: Essen, Osnabrück, Bremen, Gelsenkirchen

The discussion-based performance "So Nah, So Fern" will transport the audience 30 years back in time, offering the opportunity to meet people who immigrated to Germany since 1990.

Premiere: August 2021, Essen, Germany.

The documentary text of the performance consists of conversations with Jews from the Soviet Union who now live in Germany. Did they make the right decision back then? Did they want to change something in their lives? How were they received in Germany? Has Germany become their home? These and many other questions attempt to articulate the reality of contingent refugees in modern Germany.

The performance will feature excerpts from well-known songs as well as texts from widely recognized fictional works.

The piece is interactive, involving ordinary audience members as participants.

This project offers a unique perspective on the experiences of Jewish immigrants in Germany and promotes intercultural dialogue through the power of theater.

So nah so fern

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Creation of the World or Kabbalat Shabbat

This innovative chamber opera in Hebrew is a unique music theater project that reinterprets the creation story and transcends religious boundaries.

Blavatnik Foundation
Jewish Agency
Nevatim
Old Synagogue Essen (Museum)
City of Düsseldorf
Delphi Theater Berlin

Artistic Concept
Seven Days of Creation: Depicted by seven musicians and six instruments

Musical Journey: From the creation of the world to Shabbat

Intercultural Sound Experience: Fusion of European, Middle Eastern, and Indian music traditions

Production and Audience Experience
Immersive Setting: The audience and musicians share a festively set table

Visual Elements: Extraordinary costumes, set design, and video installations

Ritual Dimension: Integration of Shabbat traditions into modern theater production

Musical Composition
Alexander Manotskov's composition narrates the creation story through an evolving soundscape. Each day introduces new melodies, rhythms, and instruments, until on Shabbat, only voices are heard – a symbolic moment of rest and reflection.

Societal Relevance
In times of division and conflict, this project offers a space for unity and shared experience. It invites the audience to come together across cultural and religious boundaries and experience the universal power of music.

Artistic Innovation
By blending traditional rituals, modern composition, and innovative theater production, "The Creation of the World or Kabbalat Shabbat" creates a unique, boundary-crossing artistic experience that connects tradition and modernity, spirituality and art.

Kabbalat Shabbat

Ihr fahrt weg? Dann fahrt!

The life of Alexander Galich, his difficult fate as a writer, provides much food for thought, as well as the basis for a dramatic embodiment of his biography.

Director: Igor Titov, Andrey Stadnikov
Playwright: Andrey Stadnikov
Set Design: Wanja Bowden
Producer: Svetlana Dolya

The life of Alexander Galich, his difficult fate as a writer, provides much to reflect upon, as well as the foundation for a dramatic portrayal of his biography. Galich, whose early work as a playwright and screenwriter was system-compliant, gradually reevaluated the Soviet reality in his poems and songs, eventually becoming a dissident. As a result, he had to leave his homeland.

With this play, we are not creating a theatrical concert, but a dramatic performance in which Galich's songs are sung where they are thematically indispensable.

The play is divided into two acts. The first act is a very free reconstruction of the farewell celebration before Galich and his wife leave for abroad, on their last day in Russia.

In the second act, important figures from different eras come together. Thinkers, poets, and writers appear: Shalamov, Astafyev, Letov, Chaadaev, and Galich. They exchange ideas and discuss the place of their homeland in the world, as if continuing a dialogue in eternity—a dialogue that never ends as long as there is Russia on the planet.

Ihr fahrt weg

Cremulator

"Cremulator" is an independent theater project by Russian theater creators who had worked on major Russian stages before the escalation of the war against Ukraine. Now based in Berlin, they aim to avoid simply disappearing without a trace in the new cultural landscape.

IFC - INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL FOUNDATION

‘Cremulator’ is the first production of the novel of the same name by the Belarusian-Swiss writer Sasha Filipenko, which was written on the basis of interrogation transcripts from the director of the USSR's first crematorium.

The protagonist - White Guard officer Pyotr Nesterenko - takes the path of Russian emigration after the October Revolution: from Constantinople via Belgrade to Paris. In Paris, he makes a pact with the Soviets and returns to his homeland, where a new important position awaits him: the post of director of the first Moscow crematorium (The Bolsheviks were literally obsessed with this ‘progressive’ and ‘revolutionary’ way of disposing of human remains in the early years of Soviet power - and Nesterenko's position was indeed very important at the time. But this work also had a downside, a reverse side, a night side. For almost 20 years, Nesterenko officially cremated the bodies of ordinary people and representatives of the Soviet elite (for example, the body of Mayakovsky) during the day, and the bodies of secretly executed ‘enemies of the people’ at night,

It is a story about juggling with and choosing one's own truth, about burning, disfiguring and erasing, about emigration and war in the last century, about death, love and faith.

Maxim Sukhanov

Theatre and film actor, producer. Multiple winner of theatre and film awards.

Graduate of the Shchukin Theatre School.

Worked at the Vakhtangov Theatre. Worked with the Lenkom, Stanislavsky and Mayakovsky theatres. Mayakovsky Theatre.

Selected productions ‘Cyrano De Bergerac’, ‘Khlestakov’, ‘Soykina Kvartira’, ‘Lear’, ‘Tartuffe’, ‘Don Juan’ and others. Selected films ‘The Land of the Doves’, ‘Topi’, ‘Boris Godunov’, ‘The Reel’, ‘The Horde’, ‘Children of Arbat’, ‘The Goal’, etc. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Lives and works in Berlin.

Svetlana Mamresheva

Theatre and film actress

Graduate of the Moscow Art Theatre Studio School, course of K. Serebrennikov.

Worked at the Gogol Centre Theatre, collaborated with the Moscow Chekhov Art Theatre and the Electrotheatre. Stanislavsky. Selected productions include Kharms Myr, A Midsummer Night's Dream, An Ordinary Story, Kafka, To Whom Life Is Dear in Russia, I Do Not Participate in War, Zoykina's Apartment and others. She is an opera student at the UDK Berlin in Deborah York's class. She gives concerts and takes part in opera and theatre productions in Europe, including: ‘BAROCCO’ by Kirill Serebrennikov, “3 Days for the Apocalypse” by Evgeny Kulagin at the Thalia Theatre Hamburg. She lives and works in Berlin.

Yang Ge

Theatre and film actress, director and singer.

In 2014 she graduated from VGIK (workshop of S. Soloviev).

Worked at the Gogol Centre Theatre.

Selected performances ‘Spring Awakening’, ‘Fear’, ‘Marina’,

‘Kharms Myr’, “To whom life is dear in Russia”.

Selected films - The Crew, Matilda, Attraction, Tobol, Call Dicaprio, Insomnia and others

She participated in the show The Voice-Germany in 2023 and is involved in theatre productions in Europe, including Kirill Serebrennikov's BAROCCO. She lives and works in Berlin.

Igor Titov

Actor, director, musician (Banvivan project).

Graduate of the Moscow Art Theatre Studio School, course by Dmitry Brusnikin.

Worked at the independent theatre ‘Brusnikin's Workshop’, collaborated with the theatres ‘Praktika’, ‘Meyerhold Centre’ and others. Selected productions ‘The Right to Rest’, ‘Konarmiya’, ‘Norma’, ‘Swan’, ‘It's Me Too’, ‘Candide’, ‘Ai Fak. Tragedy’, “Chapaev and the Void”.

In 2023, he staged the play ‘Abandoned? Go away!’, which is based on the work and life of the Soviet bard Alexander Galich. Gives concerts.

Lives and works in Berlin.

Cremulator

Momo

A production as part of a two-week therapeutic theatre camp for children and young people from Ukraine.

An immersive world premiere at Volksgarten-Oberbilk on 28 July 2023

Akki - Aktion & Kultur mit Kindern e.V.
Jacob Teitel Akademie e.V.

16 children and young people aged 6 to 14, who came to Düsseldorf from Ukraine about a year ago, have been intensively involved with German and Ukrainian fairy tales and have been creatively active themselves. During the theatre summer camp, they got to know numerous theatre practices, including designing a paper theatre, basic acting skills, break-dance and expressive dance, music and sound, and creative writing. The focus was on individual work, but also on group work and the development of their own ideas and their artistic realisation.

The story of Momo, an imaginative creature who sits on the ruins of an amphitheatre and brings back stolen time to the children and adults, became the guideline for the new plot, where each child presented their own character and expressed their creative knowledge and skills. Not only the characters themselves, but also the direction of the theatre performance was created with the active participation of the children. The design of costumes and the choice of music were also the result of intensive co-operation with the children and young people, who worked out the sketches and costumes themselves. The landscape of the Volksgarten became the inspiration and provided a natural backdrop for the performance: The premiere will take place at several locations in the Volksgarten and invites all guests to enjoy the theatrical entertainment.

Momo

PAST PROJECTS:

Golda Debattierclub

Nevatim

European Januzs Korzak Academy

State Association of Jewish Communities of Westphalia-Lippe

Jewish Community of Düsseldorf

1700 JLID

Anna Bondarenko

Alex Bondarenko

Anton Tsirin

Main features of the project:

Regular debates on current topics

Workshops to improve argumentation techniques

promoting intercultural dialogue

Strengthening Jewish Self-Confidence

Brain-Weekend Camp

Anna Bondarenko

YOUDE

Jüdische Märchen

"Storytelling is part of the Jewish DNA." The 12-part online theater tells Jewish fairy tales that represent the heart of the Jewish religion and tradition. They explain social values and norms and open up a basic understanding of the Jewish religion for children from different cultures.

Stimme der Frau

Zeitzeugen Theater - WIR

One Charming Night

Displacement: Morgen werde ich nicht sein

So nah, so fern

Creation of the World or Kabbalat Shabbat

Ihr fahrt weg? Dann fahrt!

Cremulator

Momo