Dear visitors, dear friends!
We are extremely delighter to start the year 2015 by announcing the cultural event that represents an extraordinary step in our cultural collaboration, emphasizing the urgency of well thought-out ethical social engagement. From February 4th to February 8th 2015 Mini theatre and Jewish Cultural Centre Ljubljana in regional cooperation with the project leader JFF (Jewish Film Festival) Zagreb will host the 1st Festival of Tolerance in Ljubljana.
The international festival is not only a film festival, but spreading the idea and importance of tolerance also to other fields. In addition to the interesting film programme, the festival will integrate also Educational morning about holocaust with Branko Lustig, a lecture Symbols of Hatred by Mirko Ilić,round tables and discussions with interesting guests and film-makers.
As a part of the festival we are preparing also a book presentation with dr. Janez Premk: Tracing Jewish Heritage: A Guidebook to Slovenia written by Janez Premk and Mihaela Hudelja. The book is a result of years of research in the field of Jewish heritage in Slovenia. It offers historical and spatial coordinates of the places were inerasable trails were left by the Jews, as well as acquaints us with the parts of history with no remaining physical traces. The book presentation will be enriched by additional cultural programme: Eva Premk Bogataj (vocal) and Janez Premk (guitar) will perform Hebrew songs Shalom Aleichem and Eli, Eli.
The music programme will be a part of the festival programme also on the day of the opening, 4th of February at 7 pm when the introductory speech by the Honorary President of the Festival of Tolerance, Branko Lustig, the director of JFF Zagreb and the Festival of Tolerance Director, Nataša Popović, and the director of the Festival of tolerance in Ljubljana, Robert Waltl, will be followed by the performance of Mahdi Saadi from Palestina, student of Ljubljana Music Academy and member of the Ljubljana International Orchestra.
It is our great honour that the Antimasonic Posters Exhibition will aslo be a part of the Festival of tolerance in Ljubljana. The exhibition will be opened ob February 7th by the graphic designer, illustrator and lecturer Mirko Ilić and director of the National Museum of Contemporary History Kaja Širok, and will be displayed in the Jewish Cultural Centre Ljubljana on Križevniška Street 3 already from February 4th.
The Festival of Tolerance in Ljubljana stands as an important public platform, which year after tear, and to an increasing public response, remembers and reminds us of the horror of the Holocaust – So we should never forget!
Under the leadership of Branko Lustig, double Oscar winner and a man who survived the Holocaust, we are building a cultural manifestation in Zagreb which connects its partners and friends whose mission is to spread ideas of tolerance, equality, understanding of our differences as a foundation of society which all of us deserve. Zagreb is not an only place in which we found an opportunity for developing our ideals, we found the same enthusiasm in Rijeka, Belgrade, Vienna, Sarajevo, Cetinje and Ljubljana.
We learn from history and we don’t want to let monstrosities that happened during the Holocaust ever to happen again. The Holocaust, as the laying foundation of the program, serves as an ultimate warning about times and societies which lacked tolerance as an imperative of human intelligence and development. discriminated groups thought history and in the present day, not only the Jews but every man abused and unfairly branded for his orientation, ethnicity, political views or anything else. So we decided to constantly warn society to thrive towards positive social change with our festivals programs.
We hope and believe that the diverse festival programme will interest and attract many in joining the promotion of tolerance as the basic principle of the modern civilised society. Tolerance and equality now no boundaries and every contribution is enormous! With the help of our partners, sponsors and donators in making the festival program available to all the tickets for all the festival programmes will be free of charge (the number of tickets is limited; free tickets will be available on 29th and 30th of January 2015 between10 and 12 AM and 5. And 7 PM at the box office of Mini theatre on Križevniška Street 1). Aiming to attract the largest possible audience the films will be subtitled in Slovene and English.
