The traditional International Children’s Camp “Roots of Tolerance” took place near Chisinau, at the Dacia-Marin resort (Vadul-Luy-Vode) on August 3-13, 2013.

Among those who organized the project were the Kyiv office of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), the Jewish Cultural Center KEDEM, and the KEDEM Tolerance Club. The project took place with the financial support of the Kyiv EAJC office, Civil Rights Defenders, Mark Shabad, Minority Rights Group Europe, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Polish Embassy, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Alexander Kopansky, Garry Golanter, the Gok-Oguz restaurant, the Jewish community of Moldova, and the Dacia-Marin resort.

Invited to the camp are children age 11-17 who are interested in the history and culture of different peoples. The camp’s participants lived each day as if they were members of an ethnic group living in Moldova. Each morning they began studying a new ethnicity by learning its language, songs, dances, history and traditions. The learning experience continued well into the evening with fun cultural events. The children learned more than just simple information about the culture - they learn to feel other cultures and emphatize with their members.

This is the fourth time that the Roots of Tolerance camp has been held in Moldova. “Roots of Tolerance” projects have been held in Ukraine since 2002. The EAJ Kyiv office brought the project into the Caucasus in 2012. Unfortunately, the new EAJC President Julius Meinl declined to support this international educational camp financially, both in Ukraine and in other countries, despite the fac that the “Roots of Tolerance” camp was created by the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and had been supported by all of the previous Congress Presidents and Vice Presidents.