Educational project 2010-11: Seminars and micro-projects in Ukraine

The focus of the 2010-11 project is to develop capability in and provide a formative experience to a broad group of candidate leaders from local youth so that the principles of the Lo Tishkach education project will be incorporated in their future local projects.

The project, which involves hundreds of young people from Ukraine and neighbouring countries, teaches participants to construct and implement their own local Jewish heritage projects, reach out to local audiences and attract local media attention. Over the course of one year, participants attend a series of seminars and exchange ideas via dedicated online tools in order to build their own projects, which are carried out over the summer months of 2011. Ukrainian and international Jewish heritage and project management experts instruct and accompany the participants, thus ensuring a lasting legacy of the project throughout the country.

In addition to transmitting practical project management techniques, the project enables participants and the local target audiences of their micro-project to contextualise local Jewish history as well as the Holocaust with the help of objects such as Jewish cemeteries, Holocaust sites, archival material etc. Involving a range of Ukrainian-based organisations, the project has national reach and attracts a broad audience.

A dedicated series of seminars for Ukrainian secondary school teachers builds on project experiences from previous years and aims at raising awareness for the inclusion of Jewish heritage issues into school curricula.

Combining practical aspects with visits of important Jewish sites in Ukraine, the project is an important contribution to both the memorialisation and the future of Jewish life in the country.