22nd to 24th , February 2012

On the 23rd of February, the German artist Gabriele von Lutzau will give over her sculpture titled Flügel “Buchenwald” (“Wings Buchenwald”) to the Yad-Vashem memorial site. On this occasion, Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt, member of the German parliament and chairman of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, will come to visit us.

During the three days of his stay in Israel, Dr. Gerhardt will meet the employees of the foundation and join a session of our ME 2.0 Palestinian – Israeli Young Business Leaders Forum. Moreover, he will participate in the farewell ceremony of the project director of the Foundation, Dr. Fleck.

From the 19th to the 23rd of February, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty in Jerusalem will host an internal workshop on “Freedom and Religion”. The aim of the workshop will be to discuss the compatibility of freedom and religion and to work on a liberal position about this subject.

The participants of the workshop are members of the Foundation coming from all around the world to exchange their information and opinion about the subject. They will report about the current development of the relationship between freedom and religion in their countries and will present their work and regional projects on freedom and religion.

During the workshop and in order to get various points of view on the subject, the participants will not only have internal discussions but also several meetings with representatives of religious communities and with experts working on the subject.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty in Jerusalem is hosting a group of liberal parliamentarians from the Federal State of Hessen in Germany. Among them is the deputy prime minister of the state and the minister of justice, integration and European affairs. This group consists of members of the faction of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the State of Hessen and members of the faction’s staff. The speakers of the faction are among the visitors.

The delegation will be visiting Palestine and Israel during the period from 3-6 February 2012, and will conduct meetings and visits where they will hear first hand information from experts on the latest political and economic developments in both countries.

(Participation with personal invitation only)

The 13th session will take place on January 12th 2012, at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv. The topic will be: “Introduction to the Paris Protocols & the manufacturing sector – recipe for economic prosperity and political stability.” The participants will meet Adv. Bader Rock, Economic and Trade Advisor of the Quartet Office of the Middle East Envoy Tony Blair, and will have an open Discussion Round with the industrialist Stef Wertheimer on the Manufacturing Sector’s Ability to bring about Economic Prosperity and Political Stability

In an effort to reduce regional tensions and to promote trust building bilateral dialogue the Jerusalem and Istanbul offices of the Friedrich Naumann for Liberty decided to open up a new dialogue channel.

At the beginning of December (2011) the Foundation launched the dialogue series in the metropolis at the Bosporus convening a selected core group of distinguished experts from the civil society of both sides. Among the participants were academics, political analysts and experts on conflict management and mediation, who discussed in a one-day workshop the goals, methods, target groups and topics the planned dialogue program ought to be based on and deal with. In the prevailing atmosphere of animosities and partly also open hostility of today, geared mainly by the respective governmental level, the participants agreed that it is of utmost importance to involve a wide scope of representatives of both civil societies as mediators between the two societies. In order to change the predominantly negative perception of the other, the civil society actors ought to strive for promoting tolerance, exposing biased information and, by that, reducing tension and preparing a fertile ground for open and constructive dialogue and mutual understanding. Aiming first at the public opinion the far reaching goal of the ambitious venture is to influence also the level of political decision makers by encouraging them to undertake concrete steps to reestablish the previous relations between the two countries and to contribute to a stabilization of the region.

In the tradition of the Foundation’s applied methodologies, f.ex. during the Turkish-Armenian Dialogue, the new dialogue program will combine academic events like joint conferences, surveys as well as educational seminars and will integrate new social media tools. Topics like economic cooperation, regional development, state and religion, and civil society and the military are on the agenda for the future meetings, which are supposed to take place alternately in Israel and in Turkey.

The atmosphere among the workshop participants was characterized by openness, commitment to the cause and the determination to become a motor for change. A second meeting with an enlarged core group is scheduled for March, next year

“Freedom from Religion: International, Constitutional and Theoretical Perspective”

The conference took place between December 11th -13th 2011, in The College of Management Campus Rishon Lezion, and was being held in English.

To view the program, please visit

To view photos from the event, please click here

This is the name of the writing competition which will be conducted by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty in Jerusalem in cooperation with Ma’an News Agency. This writing competition for youth aims at encouraging Palestinian youth to write articles on what the concept of liberalism means to them. The competition will end with a final ceremony at the end of April 2012 and prizes will be handed to the best ten articles on the mentioned subject. The best ten articles will be published in a booklet during the year 2012. Announcement of the winners will take place on March 30th, 2012.

Competition preconditions:

1. Candidates should be in the age limit between 17 – 35 years of age

2. Submit articles by January 30th, 2012 to the following e-mail librali@maannet.org

3. Length of the article 1000-2000 words

4. The article should not be previously published

For more information please visit Ma’an News Agency site at the following links:

Ma’an News Agency website: http://www.maannews.net/eng/Default.aspx

Writing Competition Details: http://www.maannews.net/adv/eng/tempfiles/lyb1en.pdf

On December 11th – 13th 2011, the “Concord Research Center for Integration of International Law in Israel”, in cooperation with the Jerusalem office of the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung for Liberty, will conduct the annual international conference on the topic:

“Freedom from Religion: International, Constitutional and Theoretical Perspective”

The conference will take place between December 11th -13th 2011, in The College of Management Campus, Room 362, Building D, 3rd Floor. 7 Yitzhak Rabim Blvd. Rishon Lezion.

The conference will be held in English.

Please confirm your participation until December 10th 2011.

For registration and to view the program, please see:

www2.colman.ac.il/law/ffr

To view the English invitation, please click here