‘Meet a Jew’: German scheme seeks to tackle stereotypes and antisemitism

The government-funded project encourages people in Germany to learn and think differently about the Jewish community at a time when antisemitic hate crimes are at a record high, writes Peter Yeung

Learning materials used by the ‘Meet a Jew’ scheme to raise awareness about the Jewish community in Germany (Meet a Jew )

Eagerly raising his arm for permission to speak, 11-year-old Niklaus makes a blunt observation to the pair of Jewish volunteers here to meet him and his classmates at a school in Berlin.

“I was expecting an old rabbi,” he says. “Not young women like you.”

It is exactly the kind of naive, unfiltered comment one might expect from a schoolchild, and the kind of stereotype that ‘Meet a Jew’ – a new government-funded project in Germany – is attempting to challenge as part of its educational and cultural outreach.