On June 20-23, 2018 a seminar "Pearls of Yiddish Culture" for Jewish teachers and representatives of institutions of higher education was held by the International Yiddish Center of the World Jewish Congress in Vilnius in cooperation with the Center of Jewish education of Ukraine.
The event was aimed to upgrade the skillss of scientists, methodologists, teachers, researchers, and students in the field of teaching languages and literatures of national minorities of Ukraine.
The participants got acquainted with Yiddish culture, its universal and national facets, with the creativity of Jewish and Ukrainian writers and poets, to strengthen and enrich the cultural line of teaching content on the basis of dialogue and interaction of languages and cultures with the goal of creating integrated courses of languages and literatures of ethnic minorities and the development of textbooks and teaching aids.
Among the audience there were members of senior scientific staff of the department of teaching languages of national minorities and foreign literature at the Institute of Pedagogics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, leaders and professionals of the Institute for Modernization of Educational Content, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the Department of Education on the issues of ensuring the rights of national minorities, methodologists, directors, deputy directors and teachers of schools with Jewish, students of master's and interdisciplinary certification programs in Judaica National University of "Kyiv – Mohyla Academy", post-graduate students, to coordinators of international projects.
In total 18 persons from Kiev and the Kiev region, Odessa, Chernivtsi (Ukraine), as well as from Jerusalem (Israel) and Grodno (Belarus) attended the event.
The program of the seminar included the following lectures:
"Yiddish culture is a treasure trove of national and universal historical memory", "Poetry of the Holocaust in Yiddish", "Heads of Jewish Literary Creativity of Ukraine" (Dr. Mordechai Yushkovsky, Israel);
"Yiddish - jargon or" mame-loshn"/ mother language: notes to history", "Ukrainian-Jewish relations in the late XIX - XX centuries in the world of Jewish poetry: Jewish poets and translators - Ukrainian poets "," Modern Internet resources for acquaintance with Yiddish language and culture in the work of teacher "(Tatiana Batanova, Ukraine).
The participants visited Vilnius Jewish Gymnasium named after Sholem Aleichem, got acquainted with the peculiarities of the organization of educational system of Lithuania and psychological and pedagogical approaches to the realization of educational content and creation of educational space. During the meeting, the participants discussed issues of competence in teaching languages and literature of ethnic minorities at various educational levels, including gymnasiums and lyceums.
During the excursion the participants immersed themselves into the past and the present of the Jewish community, got acquainted with the Jewish historical and cultural heritage and with the historical sights of the multicultural Vilnius, touched the theme of the general historical memory by visiting Ponary.
After completion of the seminar, the participants received certificates of advanced training, as well as resources for further research and development of educational and methodological materials.
In the questionnaires, participants emphasized high level of preparation and holding of the seminar, the professionalism of lecturers and organizers, the increased interest in the program of the seminar, which provided a unique opportunity to approach the Jewish culture, to get acquainted with Yiddish and Ukrainian writers and poets, and to better understand the interaction of languages and cultures.