November 17 saw the International Day of Jewish Knowledge (or Day of Jewish Education) which was held in “Menorah” Center. It is an annual holiday and it is already the fourth time it takes place in Dnipropetrovsk. On this day, Jews worldwide can gain new knowledge in various fields, and practice with different types of needlework at workshops.
In Dnipropetrovsk the event was organized by Rosalyn Horlin Jewish Community Center with support of the charity fund “Dnipropetrovsk Jewish Community”, “Joint”, Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund, “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies, Fund “Shyurey Lubavitch Torah”, Jewish Student Center “Hillel” and “Elder Brother / Elder Sister” Program.
Recently, “Menorah” Center and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” have celebrated the first anniversary of its work. October the 30th saw press conference on the annual activities of the Center and the Museum, which was attended by Svitlana Yermakova, director of “Menorah Ltd” and Igor Shchupak, Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” and “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies Director. “Menorah” Center has become a real leader, as evidenced by the daily conferences and events of different themes. We continue to develop and introduce the concept of “Menorah” as cultural and business center with high spiritual component. It has already become a good tradition to hold creative evenings with well-known film and theatre actors, famous poets and composers, children’s theatre pieces. We have opened the Art gallery, where people can see reproductions of world famous artists. The Art Gallery regularly updates its exhibitions; we have already hosted an exhibition of Claude Monet, now we present exhibition of Van Gogh”, Svitlana Yermakova said on “Menorah” official website.
October 29, Argita Daudze, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassado of Latvia to Ukraine visited “Menorah” Center and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”. Latvian Ambassador arrived to our city with an official visit to the grand opening of the Days of Latvia in Dnipropetrovsk. By the way, except Ms. Daudze, the opening ceremony was also visited by Guntis Ulmanis, the President of Latvia (1993-1999) and Leonid Kuchma, the President of Ukraine (1994-2005), who stood at sources of development of friendly relations between Ukraine and Latvia.
The whole day Latvian guests were involved in the intensive program. The schedule of the Days of Latvia, dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the proclamation of the Latvia Republic, included discussions “Latvia - Ukraine in Europe”, “The Matchmaking Center” with participation of responsible representatives of the “Enterprise Europe Network” from Latvia and Ukraine. Moreover, the guests had a rich cultural program, which Ms. Argita Daudze wished to continue by visit to the Jewish Community Center.
October 27, Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” hosted the session of Dniprovsky Historical Club, joint project of “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies and Institute of Social Studies.
This time the guest of the meeting was Prof. Paul Robert Magocsi – US-Canadian historian of Ukrainian origin; researcher of the history of Ukraine and the Carpathian Ruthenia, and ethnic groups of modern Canada; member of the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada. In Europe Prof. Magocsi is known as a cartographer, in America as a historian of Ukraine, and in other parts of the world as an ideologist of the Carpatho-Rusyns. The professor met the director of “Tkuma” Institute and the Museum Dr. Igor Shchupak at several international conferences, so gladly accepted the invitation to be a guest of the project, which has already been visited by such famous Ukrainian historians as Prof. Vladyslav Hrynevych, Prof. Yaroslav Hrytsak, Prof. Yevhen Patrylyak and Vitaly Nahmanovych.
October 21, “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” hosted the seminar for students of Department of history, Zaporizhzhya National University. In the framework of cooperation with “Tkuma” Institute, Prof. Olexander Davlyetov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Professor of World History Department, has organized a historical club on the base of ZNU, where the students discuss the topics of Nazism and the Holocaust. This time 30 students, who are members of this historical club, visited “Tkuma” and the Museum. During the daily seminar they deepened their knowledge on “Racial Theory and the “Jewish Question” in Nazi Ideology”.
On October 5th – 8th 2013, International Educational, Cultural and Entertaining Limmud Conference was held for the third time in Odessa and for the seventh time in Ukraine. It is one of the most expected events in the country. The main subject of this year’s Limmud is “Odessa - Tel Aviv”. This topic was chosen not by chance as Tel Aviv is a cultural capital and a symbol of modern Israel, while Odesa gave this city the most talented people (Jabotinsky, Bialik, Tchernichovsky, Sholem Aleichem, Dizengoff and many others), whose names were used to name many streets and squares in Tel Aviv. The Conference was devoted to the 140th anniversary of Hayim Nahman Bialik, an Israeli national poet, whose work symbolically links these two cities. Limmud was held with the financial support of Limmud CIS, United Jewish Community of Ukraine, “Genesis” Foundation (within the framework of the charitable program CAF Russia “Jewish Communities”).
September 23-24, Dnipropetrovsk hosted Final of the Creative Works and Research Contest for Teachers and Students “Lessons of War and Holocaust – Lessons of Tolerance”. This annual competition is held by “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies with assistance of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and financial support of the “Claims Conference”, “Joint” and “Dutch Fund”.
“Tkuma” Contest has its special place among other competitions of this kind. The interest in the contest has been permanently high for already ten years. It should be emphasized that the Contest organizers aim not only to identify and support talented pupils, students and teachers, but also seek to promote tolerance in a multicultural society. Young people, who took part in the competition, gain the most important experience of modeling tolerant worldview through the study of Jewish tragedy that reveals the depth of disastrous chauvinistic and xenophobic ideas for one and all.
September 25-26, saw All-Ukrainian Seminar for Methodists of Regional Institutes of Advanced Teacher Training and History Teachers, organized by “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies within the framework of joint project with Yad Vashem. 30 teachers from all over Ukraine came to Dnipropetrovsk to discuss the aspects of teaching complicated problems of the history of international relations, wars and genocides within the school course of history of Ukraine and Poland.
September 23 ŐVI Meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish Committee of Experts on the Improvement of School Textbooks on History and Geography was opened. The official opening ceremony was held in the “Sinai” conference hall in “Menorah” Center, and drew about 300 wanting to hear the report of the famous Ukrainian and Polish scientists and participate in the discussion. The opening meeting was attended by Dmytro Bezuglyi, Deputy Head of the Regional Council for Executive Apparatus, Chief of Section of Internal Policy, Shmuel Kaminezki, Chief Rabbi of Dnepropetrovsk city and region, Anna Kuzma, Advisor on Scientific and Educational Cooperation, the Embassy of Poland in Ukraine; Olena Lozenko, Deputy Mayor For Executive Offices, Mykola Polyakov, Rector of Oles Honchar Dnepropetrovsk National University, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor.
September 22 the regular session of the Sunday University was held by Dr. Ihor Shchupak “Tkuma” Institute and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” Director. According to the topic the session was devoted to the Jews in the Russian Empire XVIII - XIX centuries. However, during the lectures both temporal and geographical limits were widened.
10-15 September saw the 20th International Book Forum in Lviv - the most important and most awaited literary and cultural event of the year in Ukraine. It will sound rather trivial, but it is a clear illustration of the expression “it is better to see once than hear a hundred times”. To cover all the events in a brief final article is even more impossible than to see everything that happened.
To start with dry facts and figures. The 20th International Book Forum in Lviv is a whole range of projects and activities such as Lviv International Literary Festival, Book Fair, Contest “The Best Book of the Forum”, Library Forum, Festival and Competition “Young poets’ Republic” etc. This year, the forum was attended by more than 230 publishers and 350 authors from twenty countries, ten thousand literary novelties were represented and 800 events were held.
September 23-27, Dnipropetrovsk will host ŐVI Meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish Committee of Experts on the Improvement of School Textbooks on History and Geography. Annual meeting, which is held alternately in Poland and Ukraine, this year for the first time will be held at “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies and the Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”.
The event will be conducted by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and Ministry of Education of Poland, “Tkuma” Institute, Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education (DRIPPE), Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University with support of Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration and Regional Council, with the assistance of “Claims Conference”, “Joint” and “Dutch Fund”.
September 12-15, 2013, “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies will present the newest scientific and methodic works at XX Lviv International Book Forum. The participation of “Tkuma” Institute at the Forum will be possible due to the assistance and financial support of The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany “Claims Conference”, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee “Joint”, and The Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund “Dutch Fund”.
Scientific literature occupies important place in publishing activities of “Tkuma” Institute. Among the publications that were published recently there “Unbridled Dissonance: The Second World War and Socio-Political Identities in Ukraine, 1939-1941” by Vladyslav Hrynevych, “Touch the History” by Yuriy Shapoval, collection of documents on the history of World War II and the Holocaust, Proceedings of “Tkuma” International Conferences, another edition of the scholarly journal, etc.
Regular International Student Forum, traditionally organized by “Hillel” International Jewish Student Organization, was conducted on August 27 – September 1, 2013 at the Black Sea coast (Zaliznyi Port, Kherson region). Two hundred Jewish students from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova took part in the Forum.
This year’s “Hillel” Summer Forum celebrated its fifth anniversary, therefore the organizers made the program five times more intense and fascinating: interactive sessions and workshops, madrich-time and discos, sports games and quests, intellectual games and, of course, positive communication and new friends. Well, what else is needed in the last week of the summer?
The organizers made educational part as rich as entertaining one. Immediately after the event they students returned to their high schools, to share gained wealth of knowledge with other students.
August 28-29 International Museum Seminar for Heads of Museums and Museum Programs was held on the base of Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”. The seminar was attended by 25 leading museum professionals from Vinnytsya, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Rostov-on-Don and Paris.
The seminar was organized by “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” with the financial support of the following organizations: The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany “Claims Conference”, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee “Joint”, The Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund “Dutch Fund”.
August 27 in Kryvyi Rih Holocaust Museum “Museum of Mikhail Marmer” the seminar for history and social sciences teachers “Studying the Second World War and the Holocaust History at School” was conducted. The meeting was attended by 45 teachers and heads of methodic unions.
The seminar was held in the framework of the project “Study of the Holocaust in Ukraine for Creating an Atmosphere of Tolerance”, which is implemented by “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies and Yad Vashem.
Svitlana Piddubna, “Museum of Mikhail Marmer” director and “Tkuma” Institute Regional Programs Coordinator, opened the seminar. She noted that the current seminar will largely be devoted to the introduction of multimedia technologies in education, and in particular, the use of interactive methods in history class.
August 22 the regular meeting of “Tkuma” Institute Intelligentsia Club was held. These are monthly meetings and writer Ina Radinovska is permanent moderator. People of different ages and professions gather here to talk on current topics that are interesting to the public of the city. The August meeting was devoted to one of the most burning topics of recent times - naming Dnipropetrovsk Regional Philharmonic after famous violinist Leonid Kogan.
This is the second year cultural figures actively support this idea: press conferences, “round tables” are held, and Dnipropetrovsk music school ą 7 founded the competition named after Leonid Kogan in 2012. Let us recall that the idea of naming our Philharmonic after great violinist Leonid Kogan came to our mind when the newspaper “Dnepr Vechirniy” conducted the project “Vote for the greatest!” dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Violinist Leonid Kogan was recognized as the best figure in the category “Culture”.
August 22 Dnipropetrovsk school ą 75 city hosted scientific-methodical commission of history, law and social sciences teachers. On the eve of the school year teachers discussed the topical issues of the educational process.
About 150 teachers of city schools gathered at the school. Mykhaylo Epik, Methodist of Interschool Methodical Center of Education and Science of City Council, opened the meeting. “Before the beginning of the school year, we, teachers should attach our priorities that will guide us in the education and training process” - he said.
August 21 as part of the Pinchuk Foundation project “The Open University” “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies research associates gave lectures to history teachers of Samarsky and Industrial districts of Dnipropetrovsk. 30 history teachers became participants of the first seminar of “The Open University”, which took place on August 19-21.
“The Open University” is a series of educational seminars for secondary school teachers of Dnipropetrovsk, conducted as part of education projects aimed at preserving and developing the intellectual potential of Ukraine.
The project is implemented in cooperation with Dnipropetrovsk district education department. It aims to create a system of charitable support of professional and personal development of the secondary school teachers, who are the best in their fields.
It has become a tradition to conduct the meeting of heads of district and municipal methodic unions of teachers of Dnipropetrovsk region. This year the 20th meeting was held in Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education. Methodists were given advice and instructions how to work in the new academic year. The subject of the meeting was curriculum, preparing pupils for independent external testing, extracurricular activities, and etc.
“Tkuma” Institute has been cooperating with DRIPPE for quite a long time, thus on the base of “Tkuma” Institute seminars for teachers are conducted every month. So it is not surprise that “Tkuma” employees were invited to hold a lecture for the heads methodic unions of history, law and social sciences teachers.
During August session of the Sunday University lecturers continued to reveal the topic of relations between Jews and Cossacks. This time, the moderators were Dr. Oleksandra Leonova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, “Tkuma” Institute and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” Research Associate and Dr. Oleh Repan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Social Studies, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of History of Ukraine Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University.
Lviv hosted Summer School on Jewish History, organized by Lviv Center for Urban History. Training for school listeners – the senior students of history and other humanities departments, graduate students and young scientists, lasted almost a month, from July 15 to August 9. Anna Medvedovskaya, “Tkuma” Institute and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” Research Programs Coordinator, enriched her knowledge of Jewish history and culture with other participants.
Summer School aims to promote the growth of interest to the multicultural past of Ukraine, research Jewish studies and to form group of young Ukrainian researchers bound by common scientific interests. Through holding the summer schools Center seeks to encourage the younger generation to participate in such projects in Ukraine and abroad and thus facilitate their integration into the international academic community.
August 13, Consul General of Germany in Donetsk Klaus Zillikens visited Dnipropetrovsk. The purpose of the visit of the Consul General was the summing up of cooperation - the diplomatic mission of Mr. Zillikens in the eastern regions of Ukraine met the deadline and new General Counsel will soon be introduces to the public. Mr. Zillikens visited all five regions of jurisdiction with a farewell visit. However, the Consul General has special attitude to Dnipropetrovsk as among the foreign partners of Dnipropetrovsk the first place is occupied by Germany. Mr. Zillikens repeatedly visited Dnipropetrovsk and during his last visit expressed interest in continuing cooperation between Germany and Dnipropetrovsk.
In high summer, during the holidays and vacations, “Tkuma” Institute does not stop its educational activities among the younger generation. In early August, Dr. Ihor Shchupak, “Tkuma” Institute director and Lyudmyla Kozina, “Tkuma” Institute Head of Psychological and Educational Services, held classes for pupils of children's school camps “Rio”, which was located on the Black Sea coast, in the resort village Portovoye. Such cooperation of the organizers of the summer camp (JCC “Mazal Tov”) and “Tkuma” has been going on for years. Last summer, “Tkuma” Institute staff also conducted interactive sessions, workshops and seminars for the participants of the camp. This year, the second shift (the first was held in June-July) was devoted to tolerance. “Tkuma” Institute was given the important task to carry out thematic lessons, and on the base of these lessons to convey to children the ideas of mutual understanding.
Within the educational program, Dr. Ihor Shchupak held an interactive session for the youngest – “Miracle in History”, in which he told about World War II and the Holocaust, Righteous Among the Nations and wonderful stories of salvation.
Recently the monograph “Zaporizhzhya’s Charge to the Great Was. 1939 - 1945” by Zaporizhzhya historians went out of print. The authors are well-known historians of this region: V. Ě. Moroko,
V. V. Moroko, V. S. Orlyansky, F. G. Turchenko, O. F. Steinle and others. The monograph on the broad basis of previously unexplored archival material, memoirs, records, interviews of witnesses for the first time in the national historiography examines the events of the Second World War in the region. It also describe such events as undermining of the Dnieproges, humanitarian, economic and social policies of Nazis in 1941-1943, Hitler’s visit to Zaporizhzhya, reasons of catastrophic losses of Soviet troops during the battle on the Wotan line, and many other controversial points in the history of World War II.
July 25 Mag.Wolf Dietrich Heim, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Austria in Ukraine, visited Dnipropetrovsk. He took part in the “round table” on strengthening free trade between Dnipropetrovsk regions and regions of Austria.
According to the website 056.ua, Austria is interested in strengthening trade and economic ties with our region. Austrian partners also stand ready to assist Dnipropetrovsk authorities in implementation of projects aimed at the development of civil society.
During his visit to Dnipropetrovsk Mr. Heim visited Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community.
During the regular session of the Sunday University the audience was told about the relations between Jews and Ukrainian Cossacks. This time Dr. Oleh Repan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Social Studies, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of History of Ukraine Department, Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University, became the guest of the session. Dr. Ihor Shchupak, “Tkuma” Institute and the Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” Director, became the moderator of the session.
It is widely believed that Cossacks and the Jews never got along together, that Cossacks were always very cruel towards Jews and sought to kill all of them. Mass Jewish pogroms during the war of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1647-1655) could be an example to this idea.
July 6-7, in the Volyn region, and in Sagryni village in Poland joint Polish-Ukrainian actions in memory of the victims of the Volyn tragedy in 1943 were organized with the participation of public and religious figures from Poland and Ukraine. Let us recall that 2013 is a symbolic date, the 70th anniversary of Volyn events, which became one of the most tragic pages in the history of Polish-Ukrainian relations. The memory of Volyn tragedy still causes heated debates among both peoples and is a stumbling block in relations between them.
The event was organized by Eastern European National University named after Lesya Ukrainka and Ukrainian Catholic University in cooperation with the Polish-Ukrainian forum, Jacek Kuron Educational Foundation, Sheptytsky Foundation, Southeastern Institute of Sciences in Przemysl, the Association of Ukrainians in Poland, “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies (Dnipropetrovsk).
Regular International Inter-religious Youth Seminar for Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish students “Ark 2013” was held in Bilshivtsi village (Ivano-Frankivsk region) on June 30 – July 7. The seminar was organized by: The Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Lviv, The Federation of Polish organizations in Ukraine, “Tkuma” (“Revival”) Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies, Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Lviv City Palace of Culture named after Khotkevych. The project is implemented with the support of Foundation “Pomoc Polakom na Wschodzie”, The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany “Claims Conference”, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee “Joint” and The Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund “Dutch Fund”.
The situation around the historical memory of the Volyn massacre is heating up more and more every year. And it seems like the critical moment to finally turn this tragic page of the Ukrainian-Polish history has come.
The tragic events that happened in the Volyn region and Eastern Galicia in 1943-1944 years are perceived differently in Ukraine and Poland. In Poland, there are ideas of the purposeful ethnic cleansing of Poles from the hands of the OUN and UPA. Instead, Ukraine insists on mutual nature of injustice and offers to consider the tragedy in the broader context of the Second World War and the impact of the third parties, in particular the Soviet and Nazi Germany. Polish sources speak of 100-130 thousand victims among the civilian population of the Poland and 5-15 million of Ukrainians. Meanwhile, Ukrainian sources state that about a few tens of thousands of Poles and more than 10 thousand Ukrainians were killed.
November 17 saw the International Day of Jewish Knowledge (or Day of Jewish Education) which was held in “Menorah” Center. It is an annual holiday and it is already the fourth time it takes place in Dnipropetrovsk. On this day, Jews worldwide can gain new knowledge in various fields, and practice with different types of needlework at workshops.
Recently, “Menorah” Center and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” have celebrated the first anniversary of its work. October the 30th saw press conference on the annual activities of the Center and the Museum, which was attended by Svitlana Yermakova, director of “Menorah Ltd” and Igor Shchupak, Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” and “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies Director. “Menorah” Center has become a real leader, as evidenced by the daily conferences and events of different themes. We continue to develop and introduce the concept of “Menorah” as cultural and business center with high spiritual component. It has already become a good tradition to hold creative evenings with well-known film and theatre actors, famous poets and composers, children’s theatre pieces. We have opened the Art gallery, where people can see reproductions of world famous artists. The Art Gallery regularly updates its exhibitions; we have already hosted an exhibition of Claude Monet, now we present exhibition of Van Gogh”, Svitlana Yermakova said on “Menorah” official website.
October 29, Argita Daudze, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassado of Latvia to Ukraine visited “Menorah” Center and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”. Latvian Ambassador arrived to our city with an official visit to the grand opening of the Days of Latvia in Dnipropetrovsk. By the way, except Ms. Daudze, the opening ceremony was also visited by Guntis Ulmanis, the President of Latvia (1993-1999) and Leonid Kuchma, the President of Ukraine (1994-2005), who stood at sources of development of friendly relations between Ukraine and Latvia. 
October 27, Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” hosted the session of Dniprovsky Historical Club, joint project of “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies and Institute of Social Studies. 
October 21, “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” hosted the seminar for students of Department of history, Zaporizhzhya National University. In the framework of cooperation with “Tkuma” Institute, Prof. Olexander Davlyetov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Professor of World History Department, has organized a historical club on the base of ZNU, where the students discuss the topics of Nazism and the Holocaust. This time 30 students, who are members of this historical club, visited “Tkuma” and the Museum. During the daily seminar they deepened their knowledge on “Racial Theory and the “Jewish Question” in Nazi Ideology”. 
On October 5th – 8th 2013, International Educational, Cultural and Entertaining Limmud Conference was held for the third time in Odessa and for the seventh time in Ukraine. It is one of the most expected events in the country. The main subject of this year’s Limmud is “Odessa - Tel Aviv”. This topic was chosen not by chance as Tel Aviv is a cultural capital and a symbol of modern Israel, while Odesa gave this city the most talented people (Jabotinsky, Bialik, Tchernichovsky, Sholem Aleichem, Dizengoff and many others), whose names were used to name many streets and squares in Tel Aviv. The Conference was devoted to the 140th anniversary of Hayim Nahman Bialik, an Israeli national poet, whose work symbolically links these two cities. Limmud was held with the financial support of Limmud CIS, United Jewish Community of Ukraine, “Genesis” Foundation (within the framework of the charitable program CAF Russia “Jewish Communities”).
September 23-24, Dnipropetrovsk hosted Final of the Creative Works and Research Contest for Teachers and Students “Lessons of War and Holocaust – Lessons of Tolerance”. This annual competition is held by “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies with assistance of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and financial support of the “Claims Conference”, “Joint” and “Dutch Fund”.
September 25-26, saw All-Ukrainian Seminar for Methodists of Regional Institutes of Advanced Teacher Training and History Teachers, organized by “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies within the framework of joint project with Yad Vashem. 30 teachers from all over Ukraine came to Dnipropetrovsk to discuss the aspects of teaching complicated problems of the history of international relations, wars and genocides within the school course of history of Ukraine and Poland.
September 23 ŐVI Meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish Committee of Experts on the Improvement of School Textbooks on History and Geography was opened. The official opening ceremony was held in the “Sinai” conference hall in “Menorah” Center, and drew about 300 wanting to hear the report of the famous Ukrainian and Polish scientists and participate in the discussion. The opening meeting was attended by Dmytro Bezuglyi, Deputy Head of the Regional Council for Executive Apparatus, Chief of Section of Internal Policy, Shmuel Kaminezki, Chief Rabbi of Dnepropetrovsk city and region, Anna Kuzma, Advisor on Scientific and Educational Cooperation, the Embassy of Poland in Ukraine; Olena Lozenko, Deputy Mayor For Executive Offices, Mykola Polyakov, Rector of Oles Honchar Dnepropetrovsk National University, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor.
September 22 the regular session of the Sunday University was held by Dr. Ihor Shchupak “Tkuma” Institute and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” Director. According to the topic the session was devoted to the Jews in the Russian Empire XVIII - XIX centuries. However, during the lectures both temporal and geographical limits were widened.
10-15 September saw the 20th International Book Forum in Lviv - the most important and most awaited literary and cultural event of the year in Ukraine. It will sound rather trivial, but it is a clear illustration of the expression “it is better to see once than hear a hundred times”. To cover all the events in a brief final article is even more impossible than to see everything that happened.
September 23-27, Dnipropetrovsk will host ŐVI Meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish Committee of Experts on the Improvement of School Textbooks on History and Geography. Annual meeting, which is held alternately in Poland and Ukraine, this year for the first time will be held at “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies and the Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”.
Regular International Student Forum, traditionally organized by “Hillel” International Jewish Student Organization, was conducted on August 27 – September 1, 2013 at the Black Sea coast (Zaliznyi Port, Kherson region). Two hundred Jewish students from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova took part in the Forum.
August 28-29 International Museum Seminar for Heads of Museums and Museum Programs was held on the base of Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”. The seminar was attended by 25 leading museum professionals from Vinnytsya, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Rostov-on-Don and Paris.
August 27 in Kryvyi Rih Holocaust Museum “Museum of Mikhail Marmer” the seminar for history and social sciences teachers “Studying the Second World War and the Holocaust History at School” was conducted. The meeting was attended by 45 teachers and heads of methodic unions.
August 22 the regular meeting of “Tkuma” Institute Intelligentsia Club was held. These are monthly meetings and writer Ina Radinovska is permanent moderator. People of different ages and professions gather here to talk on current topics that are interesting to the public of the city. The August meeting was devoted to one of the most burning topics of recent times - naming Dnipropetrovsk Regional Philharmonic after famous violinist Leonid Kogan.
August 22 Dnipropetrovsk school ą 75 city hosted scientific-methodical commission of history, law and social sciences teachers. On the eve of the school year teachers discussed the topical issues of the educational process.
August 21 as part of the Pinchuk Foundation project “The Open University” “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies research associates gave lectures to history teachers of Samarsky and Industrial districts of Dnipropetrovsk. 30 history teachers became participants of the first seminar of “The Open University”, which took place on August 19-21.
It has become a tradition to conduct the meeting of heads of district and municipal methodic unions of teachers of Dnipropetrovsk region. This year the 20th meeting was held in Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education. Methodists were given advice and instructions how to work in the new academic year. The subject of the meeting was curriculum, preparing pupils for independent external testing, extracurricular activities, and etc.
During August session of the Sunday University lecturers continued to reveal the topic of relations between Jews and Cossacks. This time, the moderators were Dr. Oleksandra Leonova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, “Tkuma” Institute and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” Research Associate and Dr. Oleh Repan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Social Studies, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of History of Ukraine Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University.
Lviv hosted Summer School on Jewish History, organized by Lviv Center for Urban History. Training for school listeners – the senior students of history and other humanities departments, graduate students and young scientists, lasted almost a month, from July 15 to August 9. Anna Medvedovskaya, “Tkuma” Institute and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” Research Programs Coordinator, enriched her knowledge of Jewish history and culture with other participants.
August 13, Consul General of Germany in Donetsk Klaus Zillikens visited Dnipropetrovsk. The purpose of the visit of the Consul General was the summing up of cooperation - the diplomatic mission of Mr. Zillikens in the eastern regions of Ukraine met the deadline and new General Counsel will soon be introduces to the public. Mr. Zillikens visited all five regions of jurisdiction with a farewell visit. However, the Consul General has special attitude to Dnipropetrovsk as among the foreign partners of Dnipropetrovsk the first place is occupied by Germany. Mr. Zillikens repeatedly visited Dnipropetrovsk and during his last visit expressed interest in continuing cooperation between Germany and Dnipropetrovsk. 
In high summer, during the holidays and vacations, “Tkuma” Institute does not stop its educational activities among the younger generation. In early August, Dr. Ihor Shchupak, “Tkuma” Institute director and Lyudmyla Kozina, “Tkuma” Institute Head of Psychological and Educational Services, held classes for pupils of children's school camps “Rio”, which was located on the Black Sea coast, in the resort village Portovoye. Such cooperation of the organizers of the summer camp (JCC “Mazal Tov”) and “Tkuma” has been going on for years. Last summer, “Tkuma” Institute staff also conducted interactive sessions, workshops and seminars for the participants of the camp. This year, the second shift (the first was held in June-July) was devoted to tolerance. “Tkuma” Institute was given the important task to carry out thematic lessons, and on the base of these lessons to convey to children the ideas of mutual understanding.
Recently the monograph “Zaporizhzhya’s Charge to the Great Was. 1939 - 1945” by Zaporizhzhya historians went out of print. The authors are well-known historians of this region: V. Ě. Moroko, 
July 25 Mag.Wolf Dietrich Heim, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Austria in Ukraine, visited Dnipropetrovsk. He took part in the “round table” on strengthening free trade between Dnipropetrovsk regions and regions of Austria.
During the regular session of the Sunday University the audience was told about the relations between Jews and Ukrainian Cossacks. This time Dr. Oleh Repan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Social Studies, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of History of Ukraine Department, Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University, became the guest of the session. Dr. Ihor Shchupak, “Tkuma” Institute and the Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” Director, became the moderator of the session.
July 6-7, in the Volyn region, and in Sagryni village in Poland joint Polish-Ukrainian actions in memory of the victims of the Volyn tragedy in 1943 were organized with the participation of public and religious figures from Poland and Ukraine. Let us recall that 2013 is a symbolic date, the 70th anniversary of Volyn events, which became one of the most tragic pages in the history of Polish-Ukrainian relations. The memory of Volyn tragedy still causes heated debates among both peoples and is a stumbling block in relations between them.
Regular International Inter-religious Youth Seminar for Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish students “Ark 2013” was held in Bilshivtsi village (Ivano-Frankivsk region) on June 30 – July 7. The seminar was organized by: The Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Lviv, The Federation of Polish organizations in Ukraine, “Tkuma” (“Revival”) Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies, Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Lviv City Palace of Culture named after Khotkevych. The project is implemented with the support of Foundation “Pomoc Polakom na Wschodzie”, The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany “Claims Conference”, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee “Joint” and The Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund “Dutch Fund”. 
The situation around the historical memory of the Volyn massacre is heating up more and more every year. And it seems like the critical moment to finally turn this tragic page of the Ukrainian-Polish history has come.