The “Kreuzberger Musikalische Aktion” (KMA) offers multimedia, theater and music workshops for young people in Berlin and in rural areas of Brandenburg. The overall aim is to build a bridge between white German teenagers and ethnic minorities. The KMA is also active in Kreuzberg, a Berlin district with a high percentage of ethnic minorities, where it uses multimedia workshops and events to develop young people’s social and cultural competence against xenophobia and violence among youngsters. In their daily contact with youngsters of Arabic and Turkish descent, the KMA staff members discern a growing affinity to bigoted ideologies, hatred of the United States, rejection of homosexuals and homeless people - and, above all, ever-growing antisemitism.

Since the staff of the KMA has experienced concrete cases of anti-Semitism, they are confronting this issue directly: the organization started various projects to deal with anti-Semitism among young people of ethnic minorities, most of whom have a Muslim background. One of the projects looks at Arab and Turkish media and assesses their effects on the attitudes of the youngsters. The staff and the participants analyze the anti-Semitic contents of various media, discuss their effects on the audience, and publish the results in the local newspaper. The participants then are given the opportunity to produce a radio show dealing with the topic.

The most effective way to work with youngsters is to organize a number of workshops within a relatively short time span. The participants are aged 18 to 25, and they all have in common that they strongly identify with the country their family came from, even if most of them were born in Berlin. Walter Gramming, one of the workshop leaders, says that it was rather difficult to address one of the core topics, anti-Semitism: “Our problem is that we can’t come straight to the point when it comes to this topic – we have to be cautious”. Sometimes the discussions take a sudden turn: “When we were talking about the Middle East conflict, suddenly this turned into a discussion about Turks and Kurds – a very emotional debate for some”, recounts Walter’s colleague Uschi Frank.

Currently the group is shooting a documentary. In order to interview people about their attitudes towards multiculturalism, the Arab media and anti-Semitism, the group didn’t have to travel to the Middle East – people from over 180 countries live in the German capital, many of them in Kreuzberg. So the junior filmmakers went to a nearby square and interviewed passers-by about their ethnic and religious backgrounds and their opinions to the above mentioned topics.

In addition, the team is organizing a visit to the Jewish Museum. The group will also produce their own rap song calling for intercultural tolerance and dialogue. The song will be a coproduction written by professional rappers of Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist backgrounds. One of them, Rami alias “Cross”, is only 17 but already a celebrity in the local scene. When the workshop is completed, a free CD and DVD will be distributed in the Kreuzberg neighborhood – to contribute to a lasting climate of recognition and equality.

 

Ruti Ungar, Jan Schwab

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