Conspiracies and Minorities - EUJS Seminar
From 17th to 20th November 2022, our partner organisation, the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) implemented a seminar in Riga (Latvia), focusing on conspiracies and hate speech affecting an array of minority groups.
Group photo of the seminar participants
Selected by an open call, 31 participants aged 18-29, from 13 different countries and a broad range of ethnic and religious backgrounds, attended the seminar, all of them wishing to engage in multicultural spaces and increase their advocacy and activism skills.
During recent years, there has been an enormous increase in hate and discrimination directed against different minorities across Europe. The pandemic has been a catalyst for conspiracy ideologies and myths, targeting marginalised communities, which in turn leads to violence against these groups. At the same time, the war in Ukraine is evidence for how disinformation and agitation affect the current situation. With this seminar, EUJS wanted to bring together different minority groups and explore the topic of conspiracies and hate speech with the different perspectives the participants are bringing into the seminar, strengthen the bonds between minorities and engage in durable coalition building towards a more inclusive Europe.
With this seminar, EUJS aimed to bring together different minority groups and explore the topic of conspiracies and hate speech with the different perspectives the participants are bringing into the seminar, strengthen the bonds between minorities and engage in durable coalition building towards a more inclusive Europe. We firmly believe that especially now minority groups need to merge their strengths and stand together for a Europe that we all long for.
Session were conducted by our Programme Director Esther Offenberg, our Communications and Outreach officer Eryn Sarkin, Amber Weinber from the World Jewish Congress, EUJS Policy Officer Emily Bowman,, Fiyaz Mughal OBE from Tell MAMA and Isabel Bezzaoui, a research assistant from FZI. Sessions covered a range of topics including, conspiracy theories, the rise of antisemitic conspiracy myths, disinformation, combatting conspiracies, and the relationship between conspiratorial myths and extremism. Additional sessions were given on Anti-Muslim Hate and Monitoring & Measuring Attacks and Combating Conspiracy Ideologies Online using AI. The workshops created space for participants to confront themselves when contemplating questions such as “Do I have prejudices? Why?”, and many of the participants shared their own experiences with conspiracies and how hard it was for them to work against them. The sessions also gave participants an understanding of why the EU being a structure of many different institutions, it takes a lot of time until to actually take action in combatting online harms, and by examining the Storming of the Capitol in the US on January 6th, 2021, they gained an understanding of how fast a statement can turn into violence.
To get to know Riga they received a Walking Tour through Riga from a local tour guide, where they gained great insights into the history and many cultural aspects of the town. Seizing the opportunity to visit the Jewish Community Center in Riga, they combined a tour of the building with meeting the local youth. After a brief talk about Latvian Jewry, the Jewish history of Latvia and doing a small quiz about these topics, they did some icebreakers and also learnt Jewish dances together.
