BETWEEN UTOPIA AND HISTORY

OLYMPIC VENDETTA

BABIY YAR - PAIN AND MEMORY

JEWISH FIGURE OF BOLSHEVIK'S PARTY

For already over a year a synagogue in Podol, in Shchekavitskaya street, 29 - one of the oldest and most honored by parishioners synagogues - is under major reconstruction and restoration. Very little time will pass and it will become radiant. Every Kievite or guest of the capital will be able to duly appreciate a huge work of its leadership, restorers, constructors. We referred to a deputy chairman of Kiev city Judaic religious community Yevgeny Ziskind to tell us about current developments with regards to this synagogue.

The International conference for teachers of Ukrainian schools on how to teach the history of the Holocaust and anti-racism was held in Dnepropetrovsk September 3-5, 2002. The conference was organized by the Directorate of the American "Joint" programs in Eastern Europe, London Jewish center, research and enlightenment center "Tkuma" and Dnepropetrovsk regional institute for teachers' advanced studies. It was held under the aegis of the International Fund "Task Force".

A man unaware of his past is unworthy of his future. A man unaware of his roots is like a dried-up tree. For so many tears our rulers tried to liken Jews to a drying out tree. The first generation of Soviet Jews still remembered the language and traditions, the second - only understood the language and remembered tasty dishes of their Jewish grandmothers. The current third and fourth generations, those of post-Soviet Jews, passed in their youth through orderly rows of Oktobrist and pioneer lines, Komsomol meetings. They know neither their language or traditions nor the history of their people, but they felt Jews differ from other, be it a school class, group or company.

Among the woods and fields of Podolia, on the banks of the Yuzhny Bug river quietly floating to the Black Sea freely stands Khmelnik. Nowadays, this is a famous resort annually attended by tens of thousands of people from all parts of the world. A favorable land of Podolia cures with its air and tranquility but, chiefly, with unique local water enriched with radon.