ADIRA

Established on 1 October 2020 and located at the Jewish Community in Dortmund, ADIRA (Antidiscrimination Advice and Intervention in Cases of Antisemitism and Racism), is a counselling service for victims of antisemitism. It is financially assisted by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Through this facility, the Community seeks to contribute to combating antisemitism and supporting people affected by it. Additionally, by directly locating ADIRA at the Jewish Community, it is hoped to lower the psychological barrier to people seeking assistance in the case of antisemitic events. This is because, very often, cases of subtle antisemitic abuse are not reported by the victims – among other reasons because it has been the experience of the latter that their perceptions are not always taken seriously by others. For this reason, the viewpoint of the victims is an important point of approach for the work of ADIRA.

However, ADIRA is not just responsible for Dortmund but for the whole Westphalia-Lippe region, where there are altogether eleven Jewish communities. In Dortmund itself, ADIRA is also a point of contact for victims of other forms of discrimination, e.g. racially motivated.

There are three counsellors working at ADIRA, offering support in all cases of antisemitism. Their aim is to help the victims to deal with their experiences, to find appropriate courses of action, and to combat discrimination. As a means of preventing antisemitism and discrimination from occurring in the first place, ADIRA also undertakes educational work in the form of workshops for school classes or further training courses for multiplicators, and is active in various networks.

www.adira-nrw.de