40. The writer also was unable to visit the Mitzvah
school, a small school enrolling about 100 youngsters in preschool classes
and elementary grades. Mitzvah operates
under the auspices of Rabbi Moshe Reuven Asman,
41. Rabbi Yonatan and Mrs. Ina Markovich,
who operate the Perlina school, opened a school for autistic children in
Kyiv in 2010. Known as Дитина
з
майбутнім (Ukr.; Children with a Future), the
school is housed in a renovated
two-story building previously used as a preschool.
In an earlier discussion, Mrs. Markovich told the writer that she and
Rabbi Markovich had been approached by a number of Jewish families seeking
educational programs for their autistic children. After unsuccessfully attempting to integrate
several such youngsters into regular Perlina classes, the Markoviches decided
to open a dedicated school for autistic children. They approached specialists in their home
country of Israel for advice and visited various Israeli institutions working
with autistic youngsters before proceeding with thei r plans. No full-day programs with meals or social
services had existed in Ukraine prior to the launch of the Markovich program.
Rabbi
Yonatan and Mrs. Ina Markovich are natives of Ukraine and Russia respectively;
Rabbi Markovich is a graduate of the Technion in Israel and a veteran of the
Israeli air force. Mrs. Markovich
graduated from an Israeli teachers college.
Photo: the writer.
With
the help of several families with autistic children, the Markoviches obtained
an underused preschool building and renovated it according to recommendations
of Israeli specialists. The demand for such education is so great that the normally
ponderous and corrupt Kyiv education bureaucracy issued them a 10-year
operating license without even inspecting the facility, which, in any case, was
not yet completed at the time operating permission was secured. The relevant official, who is known “to like
envelopes”, i.e., to expect envelopes containing bribe money, did not request
payment of any kind.
The school currently enrolls 19 children between the ages of three
and nine, all of whom have some Jewish heritage, but some of whom are not
halachically Jewish. Jewish programming
in the school is light. Recognizing that
autistic children require stability and continuity, the school operates year-round
with one two-week break.
The school is staffed by a director, an individual teacher for
each pupil, a speech therapist, a physical education specialist, and a
psychologist. All of the teachers have
education degrees or certificates, but few have had any consistent training in
special education for autistic children.
A specialist from San Francisco flies into Kyiv periodically for lectures
and evaluation. The Markoviches readily
acknowledge the need for more professional development, and note that
Ukraine is behind many other countries in recognizing and addressing the needs
of children with these issues.
The Markoviches and their staff claim substantial progress
in working with these youngsters in the two years in which the program has
operated; however, space and staffing constraints are likely to proscribe
expansion of the school for children older than nine. It is likely that the three nine-year olds
will transfer into a public special needs school as 10-year olds in September
2012, a school that is less advanced in its approach to autistic youngsters
than is the Markovich school.
An extensive playground with a soft, resil-ient "floor"
is available to children at the school, and the entire premises are sur-rounded
by a high wall to deter vandals. The
walled-in area also is secured by guard dogs at night.
Photo: the writer.
Development of a program for older youngsters would require
another building, said Rabbi Markovich, and he is skeptical that they would be
able to acquire one with the same ease that they obtained the existing
building. The Markoviches observed that
they already are encountering difficulty with the municipality over the
existing school; it is deemed so successful in working with the current
youngsters that the city is claiming the program as its own, although no
municipal funding, goods, or services have been provided to it. In fact, the Markoviches continued, the Kyiv
municipality wanted to produce a television feature about the city's purported success
with these children and contacted the Markoviches about sending a film crew to
document their progress. When the
Markoviches realized that the intent of the planned feature was to perpetrate a
fraudulent claim, the Markoviches declined to permit access to the film crew.
The real cost of educating an autistic child at the school is
about $2,500 per month, responded the Markoviches to a question. No family pays the full cost, but several pay
substantial amounts and all pay something.
The Markoviches have attracted several wealthy Jewish families as
sponsors, including one with an autistic child successfully integrated into the
Perlina school. All of the donors, said
the Markoviches, are carefully "cultivated" and are periodically
invited to the school to observe the work that their donations support.
In addition to the 19 youngsters currently enrolled in the
program, the school also provides assessment and coaching to a number of
families living in other cities. These
families bring their youngsters into Kyiv for as long as three months at a
time, residing in apartments that the Markoviches have secured for this
purpose.
42. As noted elsewhere in this paper, a residential
program for youngsters from troubled homes is maintained by Rabbi Yaakov
Dov Bleich. Another facility for
Jewish children is operated by Rabbi Moshe Asman of the Brodsky
synagogue. In general, the number of
youngsters in these programs throughout Ukraine has declined sharply in recent
years, probably reflecting the general Jewish population decline.
43. With support from Canadian
businessman and philanthropist James Temerty, a Jewish studies
program is underway at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) (Ukr: Національний
університет
«Києво-Могилянська
академія» - НаУКМA). According to Ukrainian Jewish leader Iosif
Zissels, 20 students are expected to
enroll in Jewish studies concentrations - 15 in history, five in Hebrew - in
September 2012. As has been the case in
other academic Jewish studies departments in the post-Soviet states, the
program will be enriched by intensive courses taught by professors from Hebrew
University in Jerusalem.
James Temerty, a Canadian of Ukrainian descent, has established
and leads the Ukrainian-Jewish
Encounter, an effort intended to advance relations between Ukrainians and
Jews. One focus of his work is
development of relevant university studies programs at leading institutions in
Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, and Ukraine. His primary effort in Ukraine appears to be
at Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, but he also is supporting Jewish
studies programs at KMA, a leading university in Kyiv.
Photo: http://www.northlandpower.ca/WhoWeAre/Leadership/JamesTemerty.aspx.
Retrieved October 7,
2012.
The
Temerty grant, which is accompanied by a related grant from the Genesis
Philanthropic Fund, should help develop a cadre of competent Ukrainian scholars
and researchers in Ukrainian Jewish history, said Mr. Zissels, and should
advance relations between the majority Ukrainian Christian population and
Ukrainian Jews. UJE also will attempt to
address the issue of unmarked and unprotected mass Jewish graves, i.e., killing
sites, dating from the Holocaust.
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