Lauder Fellows Daniel Lazer (Sweden) and Melis Yasat (Finland) teamed up to host the first ever Nordic Youth Seminar in Stockholm, Sweden. This event was designed for Jewish youth between the ages of 18-30. Their goal was to ensure Nordic Jewish youth stay engaged in their community and tackle issues unique to the Nordic Jewish community.
To help guide the seminar and discussions, the event was built on 5 main pillars. The first was Jewish advocacy, where examples were provided on how advocacy works in real life and creating interest among the participants for Jewish advocacy. The second was antisemitism. The goal of this pillar was to teach participants how to identify antisemitism, how to combat it, and how to prevent it. The third pillar was about Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East. For these sessions, they offered participants a detail-oriented presentation on the history of the Middle East to provide facts to help them better defend themselves against misinformation and hate surrounding the conflict. The fourth was social media. The goal was to equip participants with tools to spot online antisemitism, how to combat it, and how to protect themselves from online hate. The fifth pillar was about Judaism in Nordic countries. Participants were provided with knowledge surrounding Nordic Jewish history and discussed current topics such as the potential brit milah ban.
