26 tutors from Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Bila Tserkva, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmeltnytskyi, Cherkasy and Chernivtsi gathered to the seminar. The participants were greeted by Mrs Zhanna Kozhkina, deputy head of the Department of primary and secondary education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and Mrs Elena Niskovskaya, deputy head of the Department of Preschool education at the Institute of teachers training in the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
The seminar program was aimed at improving the qualifications of kindergarten tutors in the field of Yiddish language, culture, literature. Apart from specialists from Israel - Dr. Mordehay Yushkovsky and musician Marina Yakubovych - Yiddish lecturers from the National University of Kyiv-Mogilyanska Academy, Natalia Rindyuk and Tatiana Batanova, participated in teaching.
Even looking at the topics of lectures, one can understand what a wide range of knowledge opened up to the participants in such a short time.
Arkady Monastyrsky, head of the Jewish Foundation of Ukraine:
"The centuries-old culture of Yiddish in Ukraine has its own unique history and traditions. Many authors who have become classics, not only in Jewish literature but also of world literature, whose work participants have studied these days, wrote their works in Yiddish. Workshop teachers - people, inspired by the beauty of the language, a rich tradition and culture of the Jewish house of a Jewish family. Their lectures have opened up new horizons and encouraged the participants to achieve their objectives in working with children. Lectures of Dr. Mordehay Yushkovsky "What has Yiddish to say in the 21st century?", "Processes and conflicts in a Jewish family in the mirror of literature in Yiddish," "Between the hammer and sickle - Jewish culture in the USSR: the great enlightenment and tragic fall" and " Sholem Aleichem - unsurpassed classic " are unforgettable. Lecture-concert was taken with a special interest. Each song, as in this case - it was basically a song for children sung by Marina Yakubovich, accompanied by Yushkovsky's narration about its genre, history of its creation, which language features and metaphors it contains as well as about the authors (if not a folksong). That allows the students not only to gain the knowledge of the Yiddish language, literature and folklore, but also to get an emotional charge and aesthetic pleasure from the stunning beauty of the performance. This successful seminar was the beginning of a great work on the revival of Yiddish language and culture in Ukraine. I want to express my deep gratitude and appreciation for WJC YC for the professionally compiled seminar program."
We received positive feedbacks from all the participants. Here is a quote from one of them:
Diana Shevchenko, teacher in the "Shaalavim" lyceum in Kharkiv:
"The most important thing for me is that thanks to the seminar, I realized the importance of Yiddish in the modern world, and even formed a rough plan of events that I want to carry out in the lyceum and to help children and parents get closer to the language which was spoken by our grandparents."
