Collection of ideas, expertise, and knowledge about the “Betzavta Method, Adam Institute, Uki Maroshek” with concrete activities, that can be used in experiential education for civic participation and responsible leadership.
In a period where democracy is more and more questioned and a rise of extreme right-wing movements across Europe, IYNF decided to focus in 2018 on democracy and civic education. Under the year title Start With Yourself, the first training focused on the “Betzavta Method, Adam Institute, Uki Maroshek” to tackle democracy related-topics. This method was originally developed at the Adam Institute in Israel for political education. Later, it was internationally adopted in 1996, first in Germany at the Centre for Applied Political Research at the University of Munich then in other countries such as Switzerland and Northern Ireland.
The aim of introducing Betzavta was to combine approaches both from individual and system level by connecting personal experience with the entire society addressed. Participants should be stimulated to become agents of social change through working towards a more open, democratic and inclusive society through recognizing personal responsibility and critical evaluation of own behaviours.
Through this fruitful exchange, we collected ideas, expertise, and knowledge about the Betzavta method with concrete activities, that can be used in experiential education for civic participation and responsible leadership, which will be provided as examples in this manual.