When a lot of people gather in one place, when they share the interest in Jewish culture, history and tradition – this place becomes a special one, especially when it is located at the Black Sea coast. Here, in the recreation center, not far from the Tarhankut cape (near Chernomorskoye), not for the first time the summer Jewish family camps were organized by Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk and Lugansk Jewish Communities. “Tkuma” Center has friends and partners from various Eastern cities of Ukraine, develops new interesting educational and cultural projects in various regions. Therefore Tkuma staff couldn’t miss the opportunity of gathering 300 Jews and non-Jews, who are not indifferent to the problems of preserving historical memory and understanding the history lessons, problems of international relations and tolerance. To these very topics dedicated were discussions and meetings held by the director of Tkuma Center Dr. Igor Shchupak and its academic adviser Dr. Aharon Weiss.

 Is it possible to combine summer rest at sea with academic classes and discussions? Of course, it is. During the hottest hours of the day the participants of family camps met in the hall with cooled air. And when the heat fell – classes were conducted at the seashore. And it is natural, as when we talk about tolerance doesn’t it comply with its principles not to deprive people from fresh sea air and not to keep them in the stuffy lecture-room? And dialog and discussions at the seashore were very interesting.

“Tolerance is the base of the dialog between nations and people”

“Conflict and dialog between civilizations”

“Crisis in the Middle East: Israeli’s point of view”

It appeared that it is easier to talk about xenophobia to representatives of certain nations and tolerance to representatives of various cultures and traditions and much harder to talk about tolerance to neighbors, classmates, own parents or children. It’s important that people, who arranged the meeting, strove not “to discover the truth” to the audience, but make people speak, express their views and defend them in the discussions.

All the participants of these mini-seminars were delighted not only with learning something new, but also with splendor of human interaction. Moreover, this interaction will be continued during the academic year when Tkuma will get new participants to take part in Tkuma’s programs in Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Lugansk and other Ukrainian cities, as the problems of mutual understanding and tolerance are important everywhere nowadays.