|
From the 21st to the 24th
of June 2006 Tkuma
Central Ukrainian Holocaust Foundation, the Federation of Polish organizations
in Ukraine, and Lviv Ukrainian Catholic University with the support of Consulate
General of Polish Republic in Lviv, the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee in Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk and Lviv Regional Jewish Charitable
Foundation “Hesed-Aryeh” ran INTERNATIONAL
INTER-CONFESSIONAL YOUTH SEMINAR OF UKRAINIAN, JEWISH AND POLISH STUDENTS
"THE ARK".
International and inter-confessional dialogue
is an important prerequisite for forming the atmosphere of tolerance in
Ukrainian society. Therefore
Tkuma
Center together with its
partners arranges international forums, contests, and educational seminars in
which Jewish, Ukrainian, Polish youth and young people from other countries
take part.
Univ Lavra, the place of conducting the latest
seminar, was chosen not by chance. It was here in Univ during the Second World
War where priests and monks of Greek Catholic Church were rescuing Jewish
children from the flame of Holocaust, giving help to Ukrainian and Polish
children. They were doing it
from the bottom of their heart, with the blessing and
will of one of the Ukrainian nation ecclesiastical leaders in the 20th
century – Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts’kyi and his brother Archimandrite
Klimentii Sheptyts’kyi.
Among the saved Jewish was Adam Rotfeld who
nowadays is a famous Polish politician and scientist, professor, ex-Minister
for Foreign Affairs in
Poland.
The dramatic events that happened in this land are the examples of concord and
understanding between our nations.
Exactly
here, in Univ, held was the first international and inter-confessional youth
seminar with the symbolic
name – "The Ark." It started a series of Ukrainian-Polish-Jewish
activities directed to appreciation of Holocaust lessons, strengthening the
atmosphere of tolerance and international comprehension. The head of Ukrainian
Greek Catholic Church Holiest Lyubomir Cardinal Guzar welcomed the seminar and
underlined its great importance for establishing understanding between young
people of different nations.
Besides students from 15 universities,
well-known scholars, public figures and journalists from
Ukraine,
Poland,
Israel and
USA took part
in the seminar. Among them –
Adel Dianova, director of Lviv
Regional Jewish Charitable Foundation “Hesed-Aryeh”
(Lviv);
Svetlana Gerus, the deputy director of the Tkuma Central
Ukrainian Holocaust Foundation, coordinator of educational programs (
Dnepropetrovsk);
Emilia Hmelyova, the head of The Federation of Polish
organizations in
Ukraine
(Lviv);
Richard Klemm, Consul of
Polish
Republic
in Lviv;
Dr. Zhanna Kovba, assistant professor of
National Technical University "KPI", senior researcher at the
Institute of Judaica (Kiev);
Prof. Victor Malakhov, senior researcher
in the Institute of Philosophy of National Academy of Science of Ukraine, the
member of Tkuma All-Ukrainian Academic board (
Kiev);
Prof. Miroslav Marinovich, director of
the Institute of Religion and Society, the pro-rector of
Ukrainian
Catholic
University in Lviv (Lviv);
Dr. Igor Shchupak, director of Tkuma
Central Ukrainian Holocaust Foundation, OSCE expert (
Dnepropetrovsk);
Prof. Stanislav Stempen, director of
South-Eastern Scientific Institute (
Poland);
Dr. Oleg Turiy, director of the
Institute of Church History at the
Ukrainian
Catholic
University
in Lviv (Lviv);
Taras Voznyak, editor-in-chief of the Independent
Cultural Magazine "Ji" (Lviv);
Prof. Barbara Waygl,
High School of
Public
Psychology in
Warsaw (
Poland);
Dr. Aharon Weiss, academic advisor of
the Tkuma Central Ukrainian Holocaust Foundation, the member of International Council of Yad
Vashem (
Israel).
In the morning of 21 June
2006 a
press-conference took place in the premises of
Lviv
Ukrainian
Catholic
University, in the afternoon the participants
of “The Ark” were accommodated in Univ Lavra and got acquainted with the rules
of staying at the territory of the monastery and took part in the seminar grand
opening.
Four days of
intensive socializing, discussions, lectures, round tables, and psychological
training passed in a heartbeat. The subjects of the discussions and lectures
were diverse as diverse are the cultures and traditions of the nations
inhabiting the
territory of
Ukraine as well as the
history of the relations between nations. It goes without saying that the
history of Ukrainians, the Poles and Jews has a lot of instances of mutually
beneficial coexistence and cooperation, though there are number of dramatic and
tragic chapters in it. They should not be hushed up or forgotten, it is
necessary to know about them and understand their historical prerequisites and
historical lessons. Important and relevant issues were considered in such
lectures as the lecture of Dr. Oleg Turiy (Lviv) “Austrian model of
international relations in the beginning of XX century in Galichina”, lecture
of Prof. Stanislav Stempen (Poland) “Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts’kyi with respect to the phenomenon of
non-tolerance and political terror”, Dr. Zhana Kovba’s (Kiev) lecture
“Influence of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts’kyi on believers dwelling in Eastern
Galichina during Holocaust” and others.
The lessons
of history that we have to comprehend, first of all, are the lessons of tolerance
and understanding. This subject was highlighted in the lectures of Prof.
Miroslav Marinovich (Lviv) “Tolerance as political and moral principle”, Dr.
Igor Shchupak (Dnipropetrovsk) “Dialog and confrontation in the development of
civilization”, Prof. Viktor Malakhov (
Kiev)
“Mercy as the highest form of tolerance: from tolerance up to sacrifice”.
The students
showed great interest in psychological workshop conducted by Polish professor
Barbara Waygl. Luxury of
exquisite intellectual dialog was bestowed upon “The Ark” participants by
members of editorial staff of «¯» magazine – a dissident periodical, known from
Soviet times, nowadays being one of the most popular periodicals of Ukrainian
intellectuals. Its editorial-director Taras Voznyak and his colleagues not only
brilliantly represented the picture of Lviv multi-cultural environment on the
pages of their magazine, but also shared their ideas about the future
culturological projects, discussed with the round table participants the
problems of international and inter-cultural relations in Galichina in
historical retrospective.
The spiritual
climax of “The Ark” seminar was the meeting of its participants with the
Righteous of the World Ganna Shuba (Borislav) and the people who were saved
owing to such heroes and heroines – well-known historian and one of the founders
of Tkuma Center Dr. Aharon Weiss who now lives in
Jerusalem,
and Alfred Shreder from Drogobych. Everybody was touched by the open
discussions, dramatic stories and numerous moral dilemmas the witnesses of
historical events faced and the seminar participants felt privy to.
But the
mutual cognition of the national history and culture in the seminar was not
limited by the lecture-rooms. Real coruscation of Ukrainian, Polish, and Jewish
folk songs, dances, ceremonies and games thrilled all “The Ark” participants at
presentation of Ukrainian, Polish, and Jewish cultures. So the representatives
of Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic churches along with Jews took
part in Shabbat ceremony in the evening and sang Jewish songs. After relocating
to the forest opening at Midsummer Night (old style) the Jewish youth together
with Ukrainian and Polish students sang Ukrainian songs and dance in a ring,
jumped over the campfire, played thread-needle, and danced the elegant Polish
polonaise. The sound of Polish music group playing Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish
music was really moving. And during all that time the participants were
socializing what begot mutual trust and mutual understanding.
At the end of
the seminar program managed by the Deputy Director of Tkuma Center Svetlana
Gerus (Dnipropetrovs’k) the students made the tour around city of Lviv visiting
the historical monuments connected to the Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish history.
At the final
round table held in the premises of Lviv Regional Jewish Charitable Foundation “Hesed-Aryeh” a lot of warm
words were addressed to the organizers of the seminar, expressed were the
requests for the future international and inter-confessional projects, and the
major request was to attract for such events as mush young people as possible
including young people of other nationalities, and request for enlarging the
opportunities for open dialog. Students expressed their opinion that in their
educational establishments every one of them can and must promote the idea of
tolerance and understanding, awaking the interest of their compatriots in
spiritual values of neighboring nations.
As any important and good deed the seminar will have the continuation and
this is guaranteed by “The Ark” participants’ great enthusiasm and interest in
learning the history, culture and traditions of the nations that have been
living side by side at the
territory of
Ukraine for a long
time. So the future activities in Lviv and other cities of
Ukraine and
Poland shall extend the circle of
the participants of international and inter-confessional dialog. | 
