Belgian Lo Tishkach foundation and Vaad of Ukraine Jewish education center in cooperation with Sefer (Russia) center and financial support of Genesis philanthropies (Russia) held the first of the series of seminars on preservation of Jewish heritage.
There will ne nine such seminars- three in each regions- East, South and North-West for young people who can offer their own projects aimed at preservation of Jewish material heritage.
The first seminar at a suburban hotel was a kind of pilot project; it was organized by Dnepropetrovsk Hilel, and the Jewish education center prepared the program and found lecturers. It was attended by head of Lo Tishkach Philipp Carmel and director of Jewish education center Yana Yanover.
Philip Carmel gave a short lecture titled “Preservation of Jewish heritage- thinking globally, acting locally” which was followed by lectures Irina Sergeeva, head of Judaica fund at the National library of Ukraine who spoke about the biography of Semen Аn-sky and Jewish handwritten books and Vladimir Lubchenko, a researcher of the National academy history institute who described most typical Jewish artefacts in Ukraine and relations between Jews and Cossacks.
After the lectures there were also practical lessons – Ekaterina Malahova taught how to find info on Jewish communities, explained main elements of texts and graphics on Jewish gravestones, gave practical recommendations on preparation of individual projects, and Nadia Lipes, the founder of the first Ukrainian company on Jewish genealogy, spoke about this fascinating science.
The seminar was held in the atmosphere of tolerance- its participants spoke Ukrainian, English, Russian and even Hebrew and demonstrated strong wish to understand each other.
After the classes there was Shabbat celebration, prayers and evening chats. Everyone was impressed by the presentation of Dnepropetrovsk Hilel on its big scale results of the previous Lo Tishkach project.
The results were summed up during a round table; the organizers and teachers will now go to Nikolaev, then Kiev.