On 7 October 2024, the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse (CPPD) and RomaTrial e.V. hosted a special event entitled ‘Remembering the Present: A Night of Mourning. Reflections on Memory and Loss’.
On the occasion of the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza, the event focused on the complex and ambivalent topic of mourning.
Throughout the event, mourning was examined in its complexity and multidimensionality. It was characterized by unique tensions as a cultural phenomenon that shapes collective memory, remembrance, and identities and as an individual, profound emotion.
Four moderated discussions took place with Shai Hoffmann and Ahmad Dakhnous, Furkan Yüksel and Samuel Stern, Atalya Laufer, and Ariel Reichman, and Hadja Harouna-Oelker and Max Czollek. They focused on the cultural, psychological, and social aspects of mourning. Additionally, its effects on society and the individual were discussed: Is the right to grieve the same for everyone? How do we address the inequalities of grief?
The event was sold out and took place at Grüner Salon/Volksbühne. The event created a space for a constructive exchange that addressed the complex issues surrounding mourning and 7 October 2023. In this way, a form of remembrance was strengthened, involving confrontation with violence.
Photocredit: Natalia Reich
