EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS 2009-10: LATVIA, LITHUANIA, UKRAINE

Riga Jewish Community

In the course of the project year, more than 40 Latvian youth will visit and survey about 250 Jewish cemetery and mass grave sites during two residential trips and a number of one-day visits. The project will verify and update previous research on Jewish cemeteries and mass graves conducted by the ‘Museum Jews in Latvia’. Any additional sites will be added.

The surveys will be preceded and accompanied by a series of seminars given by historians and Jewish heritage specialists to develop the motivation and the skills of the survey group plus another 60 young people, which will include sessions – given by rabbis – on the halachic aspects of working with Jewish burial grounds. The seminars will be followed by visits to Jewish sites in Riga to develop practical skills.

The Jewish Community of Lithuania

In this project, 100 Lithuanian youth will attend seminars, conduct research on Jewish burial grounds in Lithuania and participate in burial ground surveys. At the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, participants of this project will make 10-15 presentations in local non-Jewish schools.

The participants, who are divided into seven regional working groups, will visit and survey about 380 Jewish burial grounds (200 Jewish cemeteries and 180 mass grave sites).

Centre for Jewish Education in Ukraine (CJEU)

15 teacher participants from Jewish day- and Sunday schools  as well as local Jewish youth will participate in this project at both summer camps and schools. The total number of young people to be touched by the project is predicted to be over 1,000.

Initially, seminars for teachers will be held in Kiev Oblast on methods for teaching Jewish heritage in classrooms; extra–curricular activities on Jewish heritage – creating of school exhibitions, oral history, historical topography, bibliography etc.; activities on Jewish heritage in summer schools. The teaching plans will then be integrated into 2010 summer camp programmes and 2010-11 school curricula.

The Jewish Community of Dnipropetrovsk

80 local Jewish youth aged 15-22 will be involved in this project, visiting, surveying and documenting 25 Jewish cemeteries and mass grave sites.

Existing information on cemeteries and mass graves from surveys carried out by the Ukrainian Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage between 1993 and 1996, will be checked against archival and web-based sources and with local experts.

The surveys will be accompanied by three seminars to be held at the ‘Golden Rose’ synagogue in Dnipropetrovsk and will also lead to school presentations at the beginning of the 2010-11 school year.

Jewish Foundation of Ukraine (JFU)

As part of this project, 50 Jewish young people from Chernihiv Oblast will survey around 40 cemetery and mass graves sites in their region. Other local Jewish school and Sunday school pupils will attend presentations and events related to the project.

The participants will check existing information on cemeteries and mass graves in Chernihiv Oblast, taken from surveys carried out by the Ukrainian Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage between 1993 and 1996, against archival sources and local Jewish heritage experts. Several seminars will cover topics such as survey skills, Jewish epigraphics, the Jewish history of the region, Jewish material heritage, the Holocaust, archival collections useful for Jewish historical research and the halachic aspects of working with Jewish burial grounds.

The project will end with a summary seminar in Chernihiv for all participants to present the results of their research and surveys.

Ukrainian Union of Jewish Students (UUJS)

Participants from UUJS’ last year’s successful project will be joined by other members of Jewish youth organisations to produce a travelling photo exhibition about the work of all 2008-9 Lo Tishkach project partners in Ukraine. Opening in Kiev in January 2010, the exhibition will travel to art centres, universities, museums and other venues in ten cities across Ukraine.

The Association of Jewish Organisations and Communities (Vaad) of Ukraine

Around 100 Ukrainian Jewish youth, including students of the Jewish Studies Departments of the National University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) and  other schools, will carry out surveys at about 60 Jewish burial grounds in Cherkasy Oblast. Another 30 participants will visit and survey about 50 sites in Zakarpattia. The survey results will be presented at a 2010 VAAD summer camp. Participants will follow a number of educational seminars covering topics such as Jewish epigraphics, regional Jewish history and research methods.