Berlin Fellowship
Widen the Circle’s Berlin Fellowship is a year-long program that empowers American remembrance activists and thought leaders who are in the midst of some of the most important current issues involving remembrance and historic injustice by connecting them with counterparts in our network in Germany. Together Americans and Germans share knowledge and build collaborations that amplify their further work. Participants also gain a new perspective on Jewish history, antisemitism, and the Holocaust.
The Fellowship is a yearlong program of learning, sharing, and inspiration. It is anchored by an eight-day immersive learning experience in Germany. Participants learn both through the people they meet and from one another. After our firsthand exploration in Germany, the Fellowship continues with a series of virtual meetings that extend the learning and sharing and introduce participants to our ongoing Network of Fellows.
We seek to foster dialogue. In Germany, we speak with many people involved in creative grassroots work and see their work up close. In addition, American participants share their own projects and experience. Past presentations have detailed dynamic projects including the challenge of telling the Emmett Till story in rural Mississippi; efforts to build a National Memorial to the Underground Railroad; and strategies for engaging students and young people on remembrance topics.
Our goal is to have participants come away with new perspectives, insights, and ideas from inspiring local practitioners and from each other, and to have the opportunity to connect with an international community of people dedicated to the power of remembrance work and learning from one another.
A Network of Fellows
Through this Fellowship, Widen the Circle is building a network of remembrance activists—people who use history to combat racism, antisemitism, and other forms of bigotry; to create healing and reconciliation; and to promote democracy. Members of this network are both Americans and Germans who have participated in the Berlin Fellowship.
Meet the Fellows
Widen the Circle’s Berlin Fellowship began in 2020. It took on its current format as a yearlong program in 2022, following a hiatus due to the pandemic. Fellows have included teachers, historians, civil rights activists in both the U.S. and Germany, and community remembrance practitioners — people who expose legacies of persecution to bring communities together, promote healing, and combat bigotry.
