The Stars Ukraine youth program coordinators, leaders and educators gathered in the city of Dnepr last week to discuss the program’s development goals for the coming year. During the two-day conference, the program leaders from the country’s Jewish communities participated in lectures, workshops and discussions to share their work experience and gain new informal education skills.

“Stars Ukraine plays a very important role in spreading Jewish values among the country’s youth and raising awareness of their Jewish heritage,” said chief rabbi of Dnepr Shmuel Kaminetsky. It’s pivotal in connecting the younger generations to their history and culture, he said.

Stars Ukraine coordinator Zalman Bokarev said that a special emphasis was placed on presenting the new learning curriculum developed for Stars by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and specifically tailored for FSU countries, which will raise the quality of Stars studies to a new level. This curriculum is already successfully applied by the Stars program in Russia.