- For the first time, ELNET-Germany is giving the ELNET Awards honoring extraordinary engagement for Jewish life in Germany and German Israeli relations
- 3 winners in the categories social, political, and cultural engagement
- Join us for the live broadcasting of the award ceremony on June 23, 2021.
Award Winners
Award for outstanding social commitment
Johannes Böing, BVB-Learning Centre
Johannes Böing has been using his fascination for the German football club Borussia Dortmund for years to inspire young people in socially difficult situations for an open and diverse society and to sensitize them to right-wing radicalism, Islamism and anti-Semitism through political education.
Award for outstanding political commitment
Linus Pook, democ. Center of Democratic Opposition
The association “democ. Center of Democratic Opposition” has set itself the goal of observing anti-democratic phenomena, analyzing them, reporting on them, and developing counter-strategies.
Award for outstanding cultural commitment
Arkadij Khaet, short film Masel Tov Cocktail
Akadij Khaet, who was born in Moldova in 1991 and immigrated to Germany with his family shortly after his birth, makes an outstanding contribution with his short film “Masel Tov Cocktail” to Jewish life in Germany, its diversity and complex tension between past and present.
Independent Jury:
- Nicola Galliner, founder and director, Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg
- Dr. Felix Klein, Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the fight against anti-Semitism
- Hildegard Müller, President, German Association of the Automotive Industry and former Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery
- Karin Prien, Minister for Education, Science and Culture of Schleswig-Holstein, member of the advisory board of ELNET-Germany
- Dr. Rafael Seligmann, writer, publicist, political scientist and historian
- Axel Wallrabenstein, Chairman, MSL Group Germany, member of the Advisory Board of ELNET-Germany
- Beate Wedekind, journalist, author, event organizer and TV producer
About the ELNET Awards
With the awards, ELNET Germany, together with the Erwin Rautenberg Foundation, would like to honor personalities, projects and initiatives who particularly work against anti-Semitism and for the German Israeli friendship. The aim is to counter the alarming rise in anti-Semitic tendencies in German society, which also exist under the guise of undifferentiated criticism of Israel.
The event also serves as an opportunity to honor the legacy of Erwin Rautenberg, the only Shoah survivor of a German-Jewish family. Despite the extremely tragic history of his family, Erwin Rautenberg never gave up his relationship with Germany, even in his new homeland, California, and was lifelong committed to coming to terms with Nazi crimes and educating German youth.