Akko’s Young Volunteers Meet for Roundtable Discussions
One of the highlights of the Remembrance Tent this year was a special event we held at the Educators’ Kibbutz building for nearly a hundred 18-year-olds who are living and volunteering in Akko for a year before their military service. These young men and women come from all over Israel to dedicate a year of their lives to living together, learning and giving back to the community before they enlist. We brought together participants from a range of different frameworks to engage in discussion circles about the challenges faced by Israeli democracy today and the responsibility of educators to ensure it meets those challenges and continues to thrive.
"In my group we talked about what role we have in combating dangerous trends like incitement, violence on the internet and demonization. In the same circle we had people from all over the political and religious spectrum but we were able to have a really good conversation, even if we didn’t agree. It kind of made me think that if we can make it work between us, we should be able to make it work as an entire country.”
Sagi, 18.
Each of the volunteers who participated in the event works with youth in and around Akko. That means that the messages that 100 young educators took home will spread to more than a thousand additional young people throughout the city.
