#1 SOME KIND OF TOMORROW: Solidarity and Alliances in Times of Crisis

Vicky Lessing is a freelance political educator and mediator. She is currently studying antisemitism research in Berlin and works there, among others, with BildungsBausteine, Gesellschaft im Wandel, and the Anne Frank Educational Center in Frankfurt am Main. Her work focuses on the entangled histories and present-day realities of antisemitism and racism, as well as on strategies for how we can remain in dialogue with one another.

Zakariyya Meißner is a German-Palestinian who studied Islamic Studies in Freiburg and has many years of experience in preventing Islamist and right-wing extremist radicalization. His work now focuses on anti-Palestinian racism. In various formats, he advocates for equal recognition of Palestinian life and support for people with Palestinian family biographies. At the center of his work is Germany’s commitment to universal human rights and society’s shared responsibility.

Ilham Bani Odeh is a political scientist working at the intersection of political education, transformative peacebuilding, and intersectional power critique. She designs and facilitates spaces for collective learning, dialogue, and solidarity-driven action in socially and geopolitically conflict-laden contexts. Her focus lies on the question of how solidarity as a political practice can bring about structural change. For her, education is a space for reflection, responsibility, and social transformation.

Mati Shemoelof is a writer, poet, and curator. Born in Haifa, Israel, he now lives in Berlin. He writes fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and more. His first German publication was the bilingual poetry collection "Bagdad I Haifa I Berlin" (Aphorisma, 2019), followed by "Das kleine Boot in meiner Hand nenn ich Narbe: Gedichte" (Parasitenpresse, 2023). In Berlin, he founded "Poetic Hafla" and "Anu אנו نحن", a collective for Jewish-Arab dialogue, and publishes the magazine "Bridges جْسُور – גשרים".

Ananya Mehra is a research associate at the Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies and European Ethnology at LMU Munich. Her research focuses on identity narratives within German racism discourse as well as on civic alliance practices and solidarity. Alongside her academic work, she is involved as a supporter of the initiative "München Erinnern!" and the educational collective "Pastinaken". In spring 2026, her co-edited conference volume "Mapping Gender Struggles" will be published, featuring her contribution on intersectionality and feminist solidarity.