The founders

Two sisters, one passion: To stimulate dialog across religious-cultural boundaries

Twin sisters Jacqueline Hopp and Madeleine Budde were born in Berlin and raised in the warm and cultured environment of a Jewish home. They attended a German-American high school. Their father, a child actor in 1920s Berlin, suffered under the increasing anti-Semitism in Berlin between the wars; his budding career came to an abrupt end as he was subjected to persecution and deportation. Ultimately, he managed to escape to Israel, where after the first tumultuous years he was able to return to the stage. As a Holocaust survivor, he returned to Berlin in the early 1950s and founded the first cinema in the city’s former western sector.

It was in this artistic environment, influenced by their studies, training and personal experience, that his daughters Jacqueline and Madeleine developed their commitment to rescuing the past from oblivion and actively preserving Jewish culture. With the creation of Keshet, they are now realizing their dream.