CEJI - A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe
CEJI – A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe is a non-governmental organisation based in Brussels, Belgium. Established in 1991, the organisation's areas of expertise include: education; inclusion and social cohesion; discrimination and xenophobia; hate speech and hate crime; media and digital literacy. It also provides anti-discrimination training to teachers, social workers and others. The organisation recently launched a series of online courses on hate crimes with support from Google, Facebook and Twitter that provide 'tools to educators, activists and other professionals to identify and combat hate speech'.
Current work
Diversity Education
CEJI has created education and training programmes, the aim of which is to "enhance appreciation of Europe’s diversity including Jews, Roma, Muslims, gays and lesbians, etc." The current training programmes offered by CEJI, in a partnership entitled 'Belieforama', include:
In addition to its Overcoming Antisemitism programme, CEJI also runs a series of programmes specifically for the Jewish community:
Facing Facts! aims to improve monitoring and recording of hate crimes throughout the European Union. The project standardizes criteria for comparable hate crime data collection and works to train civil society organisations to gather, analyze and report incidents of hate crime and hate speech, be they anti-Jewish, anti-Roma, anti-homosexual or other.
Advocacy
CEJI's aim is to contribute to policy-making processes dealing with antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, discrimination and diversity education at the institutions of the European Union, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and within the wider spectrum of European organisations and networks active in these areas. Related to this advocacy work is Facing Facts!, a project to improve monitoring and recording of hate crimes throughout the European Union by standardising criteria for comparable hate crime data collection. CEJI trains civil society organisations to gather, analyze and report incidents of hate crime and hate speech, be they anti-Jewish, anti-Roma, anti-homosexual or other.
Intercultural Dialogue
Interfaith and intercultural dialogue are key aspects of CEJI's work. According to CEJI: "the dialogue approach is particularly pertinent to relations between Muslim and Jewish communities, which have been greatly affected by the volatile political climate of recent years". CEJI offers training courses in both 'Overcoming Antisemitism' and 'Overcoming Islamophobia', often run as a combined training course.
Structure
Staff members
Staff members include director of CEJI Robin Sclafani, Facing Facts coordinator Melissa Sonnino, training coordinator Stéphanie Lecesne, communication officer & hate speech advisor Julia Mozer.
Board members
Board members of CEJI include Baron Alain Philippson of Marie and Alain Philippson Foundation, president of the Evens Foundation Corinne Evens, director of the Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël Ronny Naftaniel, founding Chair of the Universal Education Foundation Daniel Kropf, creator of Paris-based consulting firm Weisblatt & associés Karen Weisblatt, associate of global law firm Sidley Yohan Benizri. Other board members include linguist Julien Klener, head of Concept & Research Lucyna Gutman-Grauer, Managing Director of the investment division of a Chinese industrial company Frederick Mocatta, International Director of Interreligious Affairs of AJCRabbi David Rosen, and independent consultant and previous ADL Israel Office director Harry Wall.
