25th Anniversary of the Promoting Tolerance Program in Berlin on 15 June

For a quarter of a century the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in cooperation with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) has worked together on the Promoting Tolerance Program.  The Program was established only a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Since its creation in 1992, the Program has served as a platform for dialogue, aiming to improve the rights of minorities, to foster pluralism and diversity and to fight discrimination, racism and xenophobia. Those 25 years in advancing democracy and building civil society would not have been possible without our 320 alumni from 25 countries from Central, East and Southeast Europe– emerging and established leaders from NGOs, political parties, think tanks and media- who became the main ambassadors of the values of the Program in their respective countries.

To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Promoting Tolerance Program, as well as the successful cooperation between FNF and AJC, the Regional Office of FNF East and Southeast Europe is organizing an official ceremony on the topic “Confronting Bigotry and Intolerance in the Face of Rising Populism”, which will take place on the 15th June 2017, in Microsoft Atrium Berlin, Germany, at 16.30. The event will be in English. 

We are honored to have as keynote speakers at our event Rabbi Andrew Baker, Director of International Jewish Affairs and Mrs. Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Member of the Board of Directors of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.Meet our keynote speakers below. 

Rabbi Andrew Baker is Director of International Jewish Affairs, responsible for AJC’s network of relationships with Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora and addressing the accompanying issues and concerns. In January 2009 he was appointed the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in Office on Combating Anti-Semitism and has been reappointed in each successive year. He has played an active role in pressing governments to confront the legacy of the Holocaust. He was a member of Government Commissions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania and Romania that were established to examine Holocaust-era history and address the claims of its victims. For his diplomatic work in Europe, Rabbi Baker has been decorated by the Presidents of Germany (2003), Lithuania (2006), Latvia (2007) and Romania (2009). Rabbi Baker received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and rabbinic ordination from HUC-JIR in New York.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is Member of the Executive Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, a former Vice-Chairperson of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Germany and a former Federal Minister for Justice (1992-1996/2009-2013). She studied law in Göttingen and Bielefeld. In 1990, she was elected as a Member of the German Bundestag for the FDP. In 1996 she resigned from this office and focused on her work as a Member of the German Bundestag after a broad public discussion about the invulnerability of the private domain by means of acoustic observation through the state and the decision of the governing coalition to extend the state’s right to interfere in citizens’ private domain. She was spokeswoman on legal policy for the FDP parliamentary group and served twice as Deputy Chairwoman of the FDP parliamentary group.

The panel discussion on the topic “Confronting Bigotry and Intolerance in the Face of Rising Populism” will feature prominent alumni of the Program, among whom are Mr Ivo Goldstein, Ambassador of Croatia to France and UNESCO; Mr Emil Kirjas, Secretary General of Liberal International; Mrs Keit Pentus-Rosimannus,  Member of Estonian Parliament; and Mr Mate Hajba, Director of the Free Market Foundation in Hungary. Please download the full program below. 

Join us to celebrate together a quarter of a century of the Promoting Tolerance Program, 25 years of advancing democracy and building civil society, where discrimination, racism and xenophobia have no place.