TKUMA CENTER INTERACTIVE SEMINAR

“Interreligious Tolerance and Mutual Understanding”  for Jewish and Non­Jewish Schools’ Students in Dnipropetrovsk

  Every nation celebrates not only national holidays, but also the religious ones, i.e. those which belong to the certain religious community of the state.

  Thus, there is a striving to preserve and hand down the cultural and historical heritage across the generations. Most people especially honor holiday rites, the point is that the title “svyato” (holiday) originated from the notion “svyatist’” (which means sanctity).

  To turn national peculiarities in multinational Ukrainian society into advantages, which encourage cultural exchange and mutual enrichment, to foster the atmosphere of heart-openness and mutual understanding through acquainting with culture, history, customs and traditions of different nationalities– those are the objectives Tkuma Center is being implemented via educational activity.

  The opening of Tkuma Interactive Seminar has been organized in the atmosphere favorable for participants’ perceiving the essence of the topic “Strange or other?” The seminar has been devoted to the interreligious tolerance and mutual understanding on the occasion of the great Judaic and Christian religious holidays –“Pesakh” and “Easter”, which dates of celebration overlapped in 2007.

  On March 28^th, Tkuma Center welcomed the 8-10^th grade students from the Dnepropetrovsk Lyceum #100 and Specialized Jewish School #144. All the participants (the total of over 40), who represent the multinational Ukrainian state, considered interreligious tolerance issues to be relevant and important to discuss. Because everyone in life has ever faced with the inappropriate people’s behavior, insulting human dignity and restricting each person conscience liberty.

  The Seminar organizers have encouraged participants to compare notions “strange” and “other” by the example of Holocaust History as well as the nowadays situations. Participants have been suggested to investigate how certain people manipulate by the human unawareness regarding customs and traditions of different national cultures, thereby fostering misunderstandings and hostility in the society. The point is that truthful knowledge dissemination about culture and traditions of different nations might have been prevented the past Catastrophe events and teach people how to preserve and appreciate in future the most priceless gift – LIFE OF EVERY HUMAN.

  Specially arranged by the Tatyana Kakhiani psychological workshop for schools’ students has aimed to consider “Strange or other?” issue. The main Seminar’s topic has made participants to ponder over the questions “Who am I? Who we are?” what multinational world we born and live in. The exercise “Uninhabited island” has set realizing the people’s interdependency, mutual responsibility and assistance to each other. While fulfilling the task “National minorities in Ukraine”, everyone has discovered very interesting peculiarities and variety of traditions and customs of different national groups, the Ukrainian nation consists of. Particular interest has been provoked by the reports about celebrating traditions of Jews’ “Pesakh” and Christians’ “Easter”.

  Some significant for teenagers questions have been raised during the concluding discussion:

- Do you realize yourself as a representative of your nationality?

- When do you feel pride for your nationality?

- When do you feel shame for being the representative of your nationality?

- Have you ever felt the negative relation regarding the representatives of other nationality? Why?

- Do you assume the possibility of creating the family with the representative of other nationality?

- Have you ever felt of changing your nationality?

- What would you like to know about representatives of other nationalities?

  Svetlana Gerus, Tkuma Educational Programs’ Coordinator, has conducted the workshop ‘Art and Holocaust: the way of surviving and creative associations” devoted to the comprehension of Holocaust period art images, created by the artists, who had been imprisoned in concentration camps by Nazis.

The art of the Holocaust period has been introduced as the means of avoiding the reality, a way of surviving and connection with the outside world as well as possibility to resist, remaining humanistic in horrible Holocaust times.

  The Holocaust period artists differed by the age and professional skills, but the Holocaust victims misfortunes had united them. The participants have compared the creations of those prominent people and concluded that the language of art implying the desire to express feelings and deliver ones’ pain as well as hope in future for mutual understanding between nations is universal.

  The participants have been amazed by the creations of the artists, who survived the Catastrophe and via art means wanted to deliver a message of warning to the contemporaries. The acute attention has been paid to the creativeness of the sculptor Vadim Sydura and artist Mykhailo Turovskiy, who depicted the horrors of the tragedy with unbelievable expression.

  While comprehending the past Catastrophe events, the participants have expressed the wish to do all their best to preserve peaceful future and depict their feelings via art images. The discussion has been raised on the questions what social phenomena hinder the mutual understanding and what human-maid values are favorable for fostering the atmosphere of peace, wealth and where all the dreams come true.

  Having defined the main negative aspects, which participants wanted to get rid of, as well as the favorable factors, which participants would like “to take with themselves in the future”, the schools’ students have depicted them in the common art picture. Children portrayed the notions, characterizing the tolerant relations. The interesting fact that the painting exercise revealed the common participants’ values, i.e. striving for love and mutual understanding as well as desire to deliver ones’ feelings as more comprehensive as possible. The art image, consisted of different paintings, has been introduced the sole idea – to protect the happy future of the Earth.

  In the conclusion, all the participants of the art exercise have come to the idea “Love one’s neighbor, as you love yourself!!!” Under such motto, the participants have compiled all their creations in one picture, at the same time uniting their hopes for happy life and cloudless future where all dreams come true.

Svetlana Gerus,

Tkuma Educational Programs’ Coordinator