‘Jewish Paddington’: Teddy bear with Israeli passport travels between Jewish schools

A teddy bear carrying an Israeli passport and a travel journal emerged as an unlikely guest at an international conference in Prague over the weekend, where more than 400 representatives of Jewish communities from around the world gathered to discuss strengthening communal ties and addressing challenges facing Jewish communities since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.

Known as Dubi, or the “Jewish Paddington,” the traveling teddy bear is at the center of an educational initiative launched by UnitEd, an organization working in partnership with the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism to strengthen Jewish schools worldwide.

The initiative aims to connect Jewish students across Europe by sending Dubi from one school to another, allowing children in different countries to share their experiences, learn about one another and strengthen their sense of belonging to the wider Jewish community.

At each stop, Dubi joins students in classrooms, participates in school activities and takes part in Kabbalat Shabbat, the traditional Friday evening ceremony welcoming the Jewish Sabbath.

Students record their encounters in his travel journal, writing letters, sharing stories about their lives and adding drawings and greetings. They also stamp his Israeli passport, creating a record of his journey across the continent.

All activities are conducted in Hebrew, giving students an opportunity to practice the language in an interactive setting.

At the Lauder-Reut School in Bucharest, students documented a Kabbalat Shabbat celebration they shared with Dubi, concluding their entry with the words: “We love Israel very much!”

Dubi has already visited the Scheiber and Lauder schools in Budapest, the Lauder School in Warsaw, the Lauder-Reut School in Bucharest and a Jewish school in London. His next destination is Barcelona.

Along the way, the bear made a special appearance at the Netaim Conference in Prague, an international gathering focused on strengthening connections between Jewish communities and fostering a shared sense of Jewish identity.

Reut Yahav-Batat, UnitEd’s director for Europe, said the initiative was developed to bridge the geographical distances separating Jewish schools across the continent, where many communities have only one Jewish educational institution.

“Unlike North America or Latin America, most Jewish communities in Europe have just one Jewish school, often located hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest Jewish school in another community,” Yahav-Batat said. “That makes the mission of building connections between these schools especially important.”

She said the hands-on initiative has been enthusiastically embraced by participating schools, offering students a tangible way to connect with Jewish children in other countries despite the distances between them.

Shiri Mader, founder and CEO of Netaim, said Dubi’s appearance at the conference illustrated how relatively simple educational initiatives can help strengthen ties between Jewish communities.

“We were delighted to welcome Dubi to our conference,” Mader said. “He reminded us all that bringing Jews together does not always require major programs or lengthy speeches. Sometimes, all it takes is one teddy bear, a passport and a travel journal.”

Mader described the initiative as “a wonderful example of how creativity can help foster connections between communities, especially among the younger generation of the Jewish people.”

As Dubi continues his journey to Barcelona, his passport and travel journal carry a growing collection of stamps, drawings, letters and messages from Jewish children across Europe, documenting an educational project designed to bring geographically distant communities closer together.