On the 4th of May, a Tree of Peace was planted in memory of the Heroes of the Resistance, Soldiers of Liberation, and the Righteous Gentiles in the Moscow Educational Center N1311 "Thiya." The planting was a part of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress project "Garden of Peace."
The "Garden of Peace" project was initiated by the EAJC for the 65 year anniversary of the Victory over Nazism. As part of the project, the EAJC national Jewish communities are to plant a Tree of Peace, in a meaningful place for the community or its country, during the jubilee year.
The ceremony at the Moscow Jewish school was attended by the EAJC Executive Vice President Yuri Raskin, director of the Educational Center Grigoriy Lipman, representatives of veteran unions, and the "Thiya" students. The honorary right to plant the memorial Tree - in Moscow it was a birch tree - was given to the veterans and former prisoners of Nazi ghettoes. Yuri Raskin and Grigoriy Lipman installed a memorial plaque near the tree.
When speaking before the participants in the ceremony, Yuri Raskin underscored that the school was chosen for the project explicitly as a place of transfer for historic memory from generation to generation. "I wish you, and to all of us, that this Tree of Peace would grow under a peaceful, clear sky," the EAJC Executive Vice President said in conclusion of his speech.
Grigoriy Lipman noted that participation in this project is very important for the school, and promised that the school shall carefully grow the Tree of Peace in memory of the bravery and valiance of grandfathers and great-grandfathers.
The veterans shared their memories of the war with the students, and the students, in turn, read special poems they prepared for the occasion.
The Moscow ceremony was not the first in this project. The Tree of Peace was planted earlier in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Kazakhstan. On the eve of Victory Day, the Tree shall be planted in Kiev as part of the celebratory ceremonies organized by the Jewish community of Ukraine. Then the project will be continued in other countries.
Another part of the project was EAJC participation in planting the trees in Israel. At the beginning of May, the EAJC Moscow office received the certificate of the Jewish National Fund, which ensures that 25 trees, one for each EAJC country, were planted in the hills of Jerusalem in honor of the victory over Nazism.