The first day of the conference, which was opened to the public at large, drew a multi-faceted audience. Besides the regular attendants, academicians and students from Istanbul, a significant number of students and scholars from Slovenia, Greece and Cyprus attended the event, together with representatives of NGO’s and corporations.

The keynote speaker of the conference was Dr. Donna Hicks, from Harvard University and the conference focused on building bridges between Turkey, Greek Cyprus, Turkish Cyprus and Greece.

The two-day workshop that followed involved students from all four backgrounds:
Greek – Cypriot Greek – Cypriot Turk -Turk

The workshop originated 23 ideas on how to proceed with dialogue, creating an atmosphere of respect and dignity between the participants from all the aforementioned backgrounds.

A series of quantitative surveys conducted after the event, amongst Greek-Cypriots attendants and the Turkish Cypriots counterparts show that 22 % of the participants think the problem between both communities is emotional, 29 % political and historical (separately), 11 % economic and 9 % religious.

65 % of the participants stated that the current leadership in their country did not do enough things to improve the situation, 10 % think the current leadership did few things, 16 % think that the leadership did some things and 5 % believe that the current leadership did many things in the last two year.

Similarly, qualitative surveys show that most of the participants from both communities think that the problem can be resolved by furthering inter-communal relations.

These very encouraging results will be an incentive to continue with the IRWF’s Building Bridges Initiative.

In front of a large audience composed of both parents and students who are preparing their school trip to Auschwitz, Eli Yosef managed to captivate the audience with his moving story about the life and work of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, whose mysterious disappearance, at the hands of the Soviet army, was never clarified.

His monograph presentation was accompanied by a projection of photographs and documents relating to the subject.

Schools interested in receiving – free of charge – Eli Yosef conferences on Raoul Wallenberg, please contact us at tel: 02-625 79 96. The lectures are held in Hebrew, English and French.

During October-November, Eli Yossef gave lectures in several Israeli high-school schools and Yeshivas.

In November only, he appeared before 18 years old students of the renown ”Machon Meir” (the largest and most prominent Zionist Yeshiva) and before nine graders of the Herzliya prestigious ”Smadar” Junior High School.

The main theme of Mr. Yossef’s lecture before mesmerized audiences deals with Raoul Wallenberg the man, his titanic feats to save Jews and his own personal plight after being abducted by the Soviets, never to be seen again.

In his moving address to the student, Eli Yossef pointed-out that: ”Raoul Wallenberg managed to turn tears into power….his major weapons were his love for human beings, his empathy and imagination”…”We should all use these human features in order to keep his legacy alive”.

This educational initiative will continue with full force with the intention to reach a great number of Israeli pupils and students. Joint cooperations is been forged with other factors such as the Israeli Hela group which is located in the city of Be’er Sheva.