Tuesday, February 17

Another busy day in Dnepropetrovsk! Today Havayah visited many of the Jewish community organizations that Boston has been spearheading and supporting. The first stop was Beit Hannah, a school for women who are learning to become Jewish Educators. This is one of the only women’s schools for Jewish education in Ukraine. Within Beit Hannah is a Center for Children with Special Needs. Many of these children would otherwise be in institutions. Beit Hannah's staff pick up the children and their parents and bring them to the center for school; it is also a place where parents can learn skills for teaching their children at home. The teen leaders assisted in some programs with the children special needs, like painting for Purim and other activities.






The group then traveled to Beit Baruch, a senior assisted living facility. The center serves many hot meals during the day, holds classes and celebrations and even hosts a choir. The seniors can receive medical attention and get discounted or free medication at its clinic, much of which is donated from Boston. The teens met with some of the residents who sang songs with them. They even did a bit of Israeli dancing together!




One of the special moments of the week was, as always, a meeting with the chief Rabbi of the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk, Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky. The teens were able to ask the rabbi questions, specifically about the Jewish community. They also saw part of the film that the Boston teens saw at their very first training session, about the evolution of the Boston-Dnepropetrovsk partnership.




The next stop was to the Holocaust monument, which is located on the campus of one of the local universities. In the ravine that overlooks the university, some 10,000 Jews were murdered. Havayah always visits the monument. Yossi provided the group with an explanation of events that took place there, and then, after standing in silence for a brief moment, the group sang “Eli, Eli” (My God, My God, Hannah Senesh's "anthem") in both English and in Hebrew.




Tonight the group had another debriefing discussion about the program thus far - what they have learned and the impact it has had on them.