Tkuma Center News http://tkuma.dp.ua/en Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:49:00 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://tkuma.dp.ua/en/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png http://tkuma.dp.ua/en Tkuma Center News http://tkuma.dp.ua/en/content/view/82/46/ THE PROJECT OF HOLOCAUST HISTORY MUSEUM AND “MENORA” MULTIFUNCTIONAL CENTER BUILDING Holocaust Museum - Museum project Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:14:49 +0100 http://tkuma.dp.ua/en/content/view/117/14/    The next Limmud FSU event for young Russian speaking-adults, to be called “Limmud FSU Tekumah”, will take place in the town of Vinnitsa, Ukraine, some 150 kms. south-west of Kiev, on June 17-19, 2011. Vinnitsa lies in the province of Podolia, the heartland of the Jewish Pale of Settlement up to 1941.    Limmud Tekuma (Tekuma in English is “revival” or “rebirth,”) will mark the 70th anniversary of “Operation Barbarossa”, when on Midsummer’s Day 1941, the wehrmacht smashed across Germany’s Eastern borders, thus launching the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union which led to some of the most bloody and protracted battles of the Second World War.    Tkuma Center scientific programs - Scholarly programs Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:20:44 +0100 http://tkuma.dp.ua/en/content/view/116/14/     For Ukraine the year 2011 is a specials one. This is the year when Ukrainian and world community commemorate the 70th Anniversary of German attack on the USSR and the Holocaust beginning on the territory of Ukraine and the 70th anniversary of Babiy Yar tragedy.     “Tkuma” All-Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies dedicates the following events to these dates: a range of scientific conferences and seminars for school teachers and students, meetings and discussions and prepares books and films for the press. At the same time intensive work on creating the Museum of History of Jews of Ukraine and the Holocaust to be open at the beginning of 2012 goes on.     This year on May 17-19th “Tkuma” Center organized a range of important events in Lviv. The history of this ancient city, the history of West Ukraine and Ukrainian-Polish border area give reason to recollect not only the tragedy of the Holocaust and the horrors of the war, inter-ethnic hostility and crimes against humanity but also the cases of mutual help between ethnic groups and spiritual feats of saving human lives.      Here “Tkuma” works with its long-standing partners, such as “Hesed Arye” Jewish Charitable Fund, Ukrainian Catholic University, “Nova Doba” All-Ukrainian Association of History, Federation of Polish Organizations in Ukraine, “Ukrainian Jewish Encounters” (Canadian initiative) and other Ukrainian, Jewish and Polish organizations. Working in partnership, it is very important to know what unites people who represent different nationalities and religions, supporters of different ideas and views. Probably, it is understanding of the value of human lives and greatness of the feat of saving people that unites us. This is why the key topic of our events was The Righteous Among the Nations of the World.         Our reference. “The Righteous Among the Nations of the World” is a honorary title conferred in the name of the State of Israel according to the Law on perpetuating the memory of martyrs and heroes (1953) on representatives of different nationalities and religions who saved Jews from destruction in time of the Holocaust. The issue of conferring the title of the Righteous is considered by a special Committee on the Righteous Among the Nations of the World of Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Museum (Israel).       The phenomenon of the Righteous has not been solved by historians, philosophers, scientists and spiritual leaders. What were people who risked not only their lives but also the lives of their families and their children driven by sheltering Jews from the Nazi butchers? Why did a part of population take the side of the occupiers and the majority of population remain indifferent to the tragedy of “the different” and the Righteous perform a spiritual deed defending the honor of their nation? What was the motivation of the Ukrainians and Poles who concealed Jews not only from the Nazis but also from their neighbors and sometimes even from the relatives? Why did Poles who saved their Ukrainian neighbors from Polish Army Krajova and Ukrainians who saved their fellow villagers from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army risk their lives?   Over a hundred historians, philosophers, pedagogues and statesmen from Belorussia, Israel, Canada, Poland, Russia and Ukraine took part in the International Conference “The Righteous – the Saviors of Lives: Historical Experience and Moral Lessons”. The Conference participants were warmly welcomed by the representatives of the clergy, Lviv City Administration and National University “Lvivs’ka Politechnika” in the luxury halls of which the first day of the Conference work was held. In their reports the scientists covered different aspects of the Second World War and the Holocaust: inter-ethnical relations in Ukraine in the time between the two wars and in wartime, Ukrainian-Polish mutual help during the tragic historical events and reaction of peaceful population to the Holocaust and the phenomenon of the Righteous. Prof. Yaroslav Hrytsak (professor of Ukrainian Catholic University, Director of Institute for Historical Research of I. Franko Lviv State University, Lviv), Prof. Vladyslav Hrynevitch (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, Kyiv) and Serhiy Shpagin (senior lecturer of Modern and Contemporary History Department of South Federal University, Rostofv-on-the Don, Russia), delivered excellent reports dedicated to methodology of History, problems of historical memory and the models of its formation.     The reports of Dr. Orest Zakydalsky (Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter (UJE), Ukrainian-Canadian Research Center and Documentation Center, Toronto, Canada) and Prof. Barbara Weigl (deputy director, High School of Public Psychology, Warsaw, Poland) were devoted to the topic “National Heroes and Foes: Peculiarity of Perception, Morality and Humanity”.     Burning issues of historical science were touched upon in the reports of Dr. Aron Weiss, “Tkuma” All-Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies Academic Adviser, JDC Community Programs Coordinator in the FSU (Jerusalem, Israel); Prof. Maksym Gon, PhD, head of Political Sciences Department of Rivne State Humanitarian University (Rivne, Ukraine); Prof. Igor Ilyushyn, PhD, head of the Department of International Relations, Kyiv Slavonic University (Kyiv, Ukraine), Dr. Igor Shchupak, PhD, director of “Tkuma” All-Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies (Dnipropetrovsk); Ludmyla Hrynevitch, PhD, senior staff scientist of Institute for History of Ukraine of National Academy of Science (Kyiv); Faina Vynokurova, PhD, deputy director of scientific-methodical work of Vinnytsa Region State Archive, an academic secretary of International Academic Board of “Tkuma” and others.     Unique peculiarity of the Conference, dedicated to the Righteous Among the Nations of the World was the Ceremony of awarding Ukrainians who were conferred this high title on by a special Committee of Yad Vashem. The Righteous were awarded diplomas and medals by Amir Ben-Zvi, JDC Representative in Ukraine, on behalf of the State of Israel     Presentation of the book of Yanina Heshelis “With the Eyes of a Twelve-Year Old Girl” took place in the framework of the Conference (the book was published by “Hesed Arye” Jewish Charitable Fund headed by Ada Dianova and Kyiv “Duh I Literah” (“Spirit and Letter”) publishing house, chief editor Leonid Finberg). Since the end of the inferno of the Holocaust engraved in the memory and on the pages of the diary of Yanina Heshelis who was a 12-year-old girl at that time she has not returned to Lviv. This is where all her family was killed. And only now being at a mature age this woman has mustered up her strength to arrive in the city connected with very hard memories for her to make a public presentation of a book about her salvation. Yanina Heshelis was accompanied by her two sons and a 12-year-old granddaughter. .    Historical documentary of Dr Faina Vynokurova “Requiem to the Defender” dedicated to the Righteous Among the Nations of the World L. I. Postolovskaya who was director of an orphanage in Vinnytsa during Nazi occupation was of a high artistic level and a profound historical background. This film presentation was also included in the Conference program. Premiere of “Yanka” play staged after the book of Ya. Heshelis (“Debut” Theater of “Hesed Arye” Jewish Charitable Fund) was the spiritual culmination of the Conference. Both Yanina, the prototype of the main character of the play, and the spectators were unable to hold back their tears and emotions, empathizing with the Jewish girl who went through all the circles of the Holocaust and was saved by Poles and Ukrainians, opposing the Nazi “New Order”.   The meeting-dialog of the Righteous Among the Nations of the World and the Saved in time of the Holocaust was marvelous. Among the participants of this round table meetingthere were children and grandchildren of the Righteous Among the Nations of the World Ivan Kuzik, Stefania Tuzhanskaya, the Sagaidak and Pastuh families as well as the Saved in time of the Holocaust Dr. Aron Weiss, Dr. Yitzhak Komem, Dr. Sharon Komem(Israel) and researches of the history of the Holocaust Dr. Zhanna Kovba (Ukraine), Tamara Vershitskaya (Belorussia); Dr. Igor Shchupak (Ukraine). Ukrainians and Jews, citizens of different countries and representatives of different professions shared their innermost thoughts and feelings and passed on their deeply dramatic memories.   On the final day “Tkuma” Center together with the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sport of Ukraine conducted International Pedagogical Seminar “European Experience of the Holocaust and Other Genocides Studies” attended by over 40 people – methodologists of Regional Institutes for Teachers’ Professional Upgrading from all regions of Ukraine, Ukrainian teachers – winners of the “Teacher of the Year” contest, as well as by methodologists and teachers from Belorussia, Israel, Poland and Russia.   On this day All-Ukrainian seminar for the heads of “Clubs of the Intelligentsia” of “Tkuma” and International seminar for the heads of museum programs took place. These events will be covered by us in detail later.   The participants of the conference, seminars and round table meetings have marked their high scientific level and public importance. At the scientific forum, pedagogical and museum seminars, creative meetings and presentations the issues of understanding the lessons of the war and the Holocaust were considered from different points of view.   The topic of the Righteous Among the Nations of the World is one of the rare topics that representatives of different nationalities and supporters of various ideologies treat positively. The Righteous is a historical phenomenon that does not require special, various evaluations, depending on different vision of Ukraine or Germany, Poland or Russia’s national histories. This is the rare case when representatives of different nations are united not by common victims but by common heroes.       Tkuma Center scientific programs - Events in the World Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:50:18 +0100 http://tkuma.dp.ua/en/content/view/115/17/        A report on conducting International Scientific-Practical Seminar for secondary schools teachers.    Many Ukrainians associate the following with contemporary Moldova: perfect wine, bright sun and beautiful ladies. That is surely true and nothing seems to remind us of the far-off War that burst out 69 years ago. Very few Ukrainians are familiar with the history of our neighboring country during the Great patriotic War and know the fact that there were over 250 ghettos and concentration camps on the territory of this small country. In 1941–1944 600 thousand Jewish people were murdered by Nazis there.    And only after some decades is memory of these innocent victims perpetuated. Tkuma Center public activities - Educational activities Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:32:01 +0100 http://tkuma.dp.ua/en/content/view/113/          It is common knowledge that Odessa has always been considered as a “Jewish capital” of both Russian Empire and Soviet Ukraine. Undoubtedly, nowadays the city of Dnepropetrovsk claims to be a “Jewish capital”.    The two cities are united not only by their Jewish status. Tkuma Center works in close partnership with many organizations of Odessa, including the recently established Center for Holocaust Studies at Odessa Jewish University, a very interesting Migdal Shorashim Museum of Odessa Jewry and an actively developing Beit Grand Jewish Community Center. Beit Grand hosted a very important event, bringing together friends of the Jewish Community Center from different cities and countries as well as city and oblast authorities (it should be mentioned that the mayor of Odessa is Eduard Gurvits, a famous politician), the heads of Claims Conference, JDC and other Jewish Organizations. Events - News Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:14:57 +0100