Euroasian Jewish News

“Congress College” Under EAJC Aegis: From the General to the Specific

On the 17th of December in the Moscow Gostiny Dvir, the second meeting of the Congress College took place. The Congress College is a new club-type community created under the aegis of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC).

It was initiated by the executive directorship of the EAJC and a number of representatives of the business world, who were collectively interested in forming a space for the effective solution of collegiate tasks. According to the organizators' idea, the Congress College is to unite representatives of the worlds of business, culture, and science, politicians and community activists who share the humanitarian values of the Congress and who realize individual and collective business and community-important tasks.

Participants of the “Congress College: From the General to the Specific” meeting were greeted by the leader of the new community, EAJC Executive Vice-President Yuri Raskin. The meeting was to elaborate the subsequent life of the community. The working part of the meeting was opened by the deputy head of the EAJC Development Department Dmitry Marjasis with his speech “The Idea of the “Club Good” and Effective Communities of a New Type.” His speech reflected the conceptual prerequisites of the organizators of the Congress College. Then Yuri Raskin presented the estimated future structure, goals, tasks, and perspectives of the new community. He gave special attention to the specific forms and methods of realization for the collective commercial and humanitarian interests of the members of the Congress College.

After the presentation there was a business game lead by the director of the Russian-Jewish Institute of Informal Education Vadim Zicer. Four participants of the meeting, G. Poltorak, V. Gaft, l. Ryabchenko, and A. Pyatygorsky, were to present the four faces of a participant of the new community (Businessmen, Philosopher, Extrovert, and Philantropist). During this game, the participants tried to define the main motives for participating in the Congress College, possible criteria of the successfulness of the venture, and specific means of uniting the humanitarian intentions of the Congress and the collective members of the community. Many opinions that detailed the motivations of the members of the Congress College were stated as part of the general discussion.

When summarizing the results of the meeting, Yuri Raskin proposed a preliminary plan for the activity of the community for the upcoming year.

Since the meeting was timed to coincide with Hannukah, candles were lit in the holiday menorah. The privilege to do this was given to the members of the EAJC Director's Council who were present at the meeting. The participants were all offered the traditional Hannukah treat – sufganiyot doughnuts. After that the participants had an informal stand-up party, where they continued socializing.

Congress College, Zicer, Raskin