Pupils study both the
conventional Ukrainian secular curriculum and a Chabad religious curriculum;
the general studies program is very strong, said Ms Yakimenko, noting that
machon pupils perform well in various academic competitions with city secular
schools. Machon classes are held in a cluster of
classrooms on the lower level of the choral synagogue. Girls participate in some all-school events,
such as holiday celebrations, with students from School #170.
Responding to a question,
Ms. Yakimenko said that most graduates of the machon continue their
education in Chabad post-secondary programs, including Akademia (see below) in
Kharkiv and Chabad women's institutions in Zhytomyr and Moscow. Some girls also pursue further education in
Israel.
28. Kharkiv Chabad operates a post-secondary school program
for young women, enabling them to enroll in the local university/institute
program of their choice while concurrently studying Jewish subjects
in late afternoons and evenings at the synagogue. Known as Akademia, the program
currently (2011-2012) enrolls ten young women between the ages of 18 and 30 who
are pursuing degrees in such fields as medicine, psychology, English, business
management, and fashion design. Their
tuition at appropriate secular universities and colleges is paid by Rabbi Moshe
Moskovitz, the Chief Rabbi of Kharkiv (see below).
In addition to pursuing
professional degrees, participants also study synagogue-based courses in
Hebrew, Judaism, Jewish law, Torah, hasidut, and Jewish history in classes that
are held on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. The young women also attend STARS classes on
Sunday afternoons from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Pearl Kolnak, who directs the Akademia program, said that eight
of the 10 young women in the program are residents of Kharkiv and live at home
while commuting to their places of study; the remaining two are from Chernihiv
and live in a Chabad-owned apartment adjacent to the synagogue. The eight local students move into the
apartment for Shabbat and various holidays.
Pearl
Kolnak directs the Kharkiv Akademia program, which offers full scholarships to young women pursuing academic
degrees who also undertake a concurrent program of Chabad religious study.
Photo: the writer.
In
addition to their secular and Jewish courses, Akademia students provide
assistance to community professionals on Shabbat and all holidays, assist in
various Chabad preschool activities, and are counselors at either the synagogue
day camp or its residential camp outside the city. An earlier program in which Akademia students
participated in three intensive seminars at Beit Chana in Dnipropetrovsk during
each academic year has been suspended due to financial constraints in both
Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.
Ms. Kolnak acknowledged that Akademia
participants are from impoverished homes and are attracted to the program
because it pays their tuition at local universities and colleges. Without Akademia, higher education would be
impossible for most of them. Participants
do not receive general spending money, but they are given the customary
stipends for STARS courses. The high
operating costs of Akademia deter its expansion to include more young women,
said Ms. Kolnak; however, she stated, they are always looking for ways in which
to improve the existing program.
29. Lycée Sha’alavim is a
struggling Jewish day school started in 1994 and then abandoned in 2009 by the
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU; New York). As a private school, the lycée receives some
state funding, but less than that allocated to public schools (such as School
#170). Further, a major component of OU
support had been the assignment of three young adult modern Orthodox Jewish
couples from Israel as Jewish studies teachers in the school; when the OU
withdrew its support the Israelis returned to Israel, leaving the lycée without
any qualified teachers of Jewish subjects.
Yevgeny Persky,
who has been principal of the lycée since its inception, has labored hard to
maintain it as a competitive institution.
He has changed its denominational affiliation to Masorti (Conservative),
thus permitting the enrollment of non-halachically Jewish youngsters and
obtaining the assistance of Midreshet Yerushalayim, the Russian-language
outreach section of the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem, in training local teachers
to teach Jewish subjects. Pupil
enrollment, which had fallen below 100 in 2010-2011 rose to 114 in 2011-2012 in
grades one through 10 and was anticipated to increase even more in 2012-2013
with the addition of an eleventh grade and the attraction of some new students
throughout the school.
Yevgeny
Persky, a former professor in a scientific institute, became principal of Lycée
Sha'alavim at its inception and has used his own funds and solicited money from
others to maintain its operations since its original sponsors abandoned the
project.
Photo: the writer.
Although
its private-school status enables the lycée to charge substantial tuition, student
fees are minimal due to the low economic status of many lycée
families. However, the school has opened
two fee-based nursery school groups in a discrete wing of the building,
each group enrolling ten children.
Another source of income is the operation of a fee-paying afterschool
program that attracts 150 children, including many non-Jewish youngsters,
that meets every weekday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Youngsters participate in various educational, cultural, and
recreational activities; the afterschool program, said Mr. Persky, is a
"huge success" (огромный успех), both in its program content and in its
income-generating capacity.
A
section for special needs children also produces some revenue in form of
grants from the Kharkiv municipality and from World Jewish Relief, a
British organization. The special needs
group includes 39 youngsters with various disabilities and employs four special
education teachers, a psychologist, a speech therapist, and several aides.
World
Jewish Relief also provided a grant for reconstruction of the Sha'alavim sports
hall; in addition to its use for regular physical education and sports
activity, the facility is used for a fee-paying children's dance program. Notwithstanding their own limited financial
resources, some school families donate in-kind gifts and supplies to the
school from time to time.
The
Jewish studies program at the school consists of only 30 minutes weekly
for first graders, but jumps to two and one-half hours for second grade, four
hours for fifth grade, and seven class periods in sixth grade. In ninth and tenth grade, ten classes in
Jewish studies are scheduled each week.
Most of the Jewish studies teachers, Mr. Persky said, are graduates of
Sha'alavim. Their Sha'alavim student
experience, greatly enhanced by instruction from specialists at Midreshet
Yerushalayim, has produced an excellent Jewish studies program, Mr. Persky
continued.
As
a private school, the lycée offers extended class time (42 hours per
week, in contrast to 32 to 33 hours in public schools), a fact that is greatly
appreciated by parents. Another
attraction to parents is small classes.
Despite
the considerable progress made by Mr. Persky in maintaining the school, Sha'alavim's
success seems tenuous. The school is
located in a remote part of the city, necessitating long bus rides for
pupils. Its building, a former
preschool, is ill-suited to the requirements of older pupils and requires
substantial renovations. The fundraising efforts of Mr. Persky seem
almost Herculean, especially in the absence of major donors, and absorb much of
his time and energy. Midreshet
Yerushalayim, which has been vital to the school in training its Jewish studies
teachers, is not capable of providing the general financial support once bestowed
by the Orthodox Union. Further, the
school building is owned by the cash-strapped municipality, which is
threatening a substantial increase in rent.
30. The Hillel student group in Kharkiv
has been one of the most vital and creative Hillels in all of the post-Soviet
states, perhaps reflecting the large population of students in this university
city and the expertise of its longtime director, Yulia Pototskaya. Operating from a four-room (including
kitchen) office suite in the center of Kharkiv, Hillel attracts about 250
students to its activities every month and between 500 and 600 during the
course of an entire year; these figures represent an increase over the previous
year, said Ms. Pototskaya.
In
addition to welcoming "walk-ins", Hillel does targeted outreach in
six local universities/colleges in which Jewish enrollment is believed to be
substantial. The organization makes
extensive use of Russian-language social networking sites to recruit students
to specific events and maintain general contact with all who express interest
in its agenda.
Kharkiv
Hillel was a participant in a recent Hillel pilot project known as Neshama (Heb.,
Soul), Ms. Pototskaya recounted.
It was an outstanding experience, she said, involving ten Jewish student
and young adult artists and ten Jewish student historians who traveled together
to a number of important Jewish historical sites in Ukraine and Belarus,
recording their experiences and thoughts.
Upon their return to Kharkiv, some of their artwork and written
observations were collected and published in a booklet. Each person perceived
the journey through his or her own particular skill, developing their
individual talents while enriching the impressions of others.
Kharkiv
Hillel has long provided opportunities for students to express themselves
creatively through music, dance, and drama. Interested students participate in various
festivals, holiday events, and community gatherings.
In addition to artistic endeavors, Ms. Pototskaya listed a number of
other activities that draw great Hillel student interest. The Week of Good Deeds, a national effort,
engages Hillel students in volunteering, including such general civic
projects as working with police to promote child safety and cleaning public
parks and playgrounds. Hillel members
also volunteer within the Jewish community, serving as madrichim (leaders)
for JDC-organized children's events, cleaning old Jewish cemeteries, and
visiting isolated elderly Jews in their apartments.
Julia
Pototskaya is one of the veteran Hillel directors in the post-Soviet states.
Photo: the writer.
|