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16 Iyar 5761 - May 9, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Tenth Anniversary of Kiev Jewish School
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

A special ceremony took place on Rosh Chodesh Iyar to mark the tenth anniversary since the founding of the Jewish School in Kiev, under the aegis of Yad Yisroel. Some 2000 Jews of Kiev gathered in a large auditorium to mark the event, at which pupils, past and present, showed their appreciation for what the school has done for them.

In a moving address, the Chief Rabbi of the Ukraine, Yaakov Dov Bleich, who established the school in 1991, mentioned that this very hall where divrei Torah were being heard on this occasion had been the cultural center of the dreaded, atheistic KGB during the Communist era.

Among the distinguished guests who participated in the event were the well- known philanthropists, Mr. Albert Reichman and Rabbi Shlomo Noach Mandel, from Toronto. Rabbi Meir Roberg, veteran mechanech and former head of the Hasmoean High Schools in London, traveled from Jerusalem to address the gathering. He has been connected with the mosdos in Kiev for several years.

Local dignitaries who greeted the occasion included the Minister of Education for the Ukraine, who praised the outstanding achievements of the school. He was proud of the fact that many of the students continue to study in yeshivos and seminaries in Israel after they graduate from school.

Today there are some 500 pupils in the school, which has separate buildings for boys and girls. Thanks to a grant by the Pinkus Foundation, two dormitory sections have been added in recent years. There are some forty students in the boys section, and a further thirty girls in the newly refurbished building, which also houses the kindergarten for eighty children. The boarding facilities enable pupils from all over the Ukraine to benefit from a full-time Jewish education.

The Rebbes at the school are all Kollel graduates, mainly from Eretz Yisroel. Their wives are trained Bais Yaakov teachers, who teach limmudei kodesh in the girls' school or in the kindergartens.

Two of the current staff are couples who themselves were students of the school when it just started. After several years of learning in Eretz Yisroel, they now returned to teach in Kiev for a few years.

It is hoped to organize a residential seminar for teachers of secular subjects at the Jewish schools in the Ukraine. Almost all of them are Jewish, but unfortunately lack basic knowledge of Yiddishkeit.

Previous such seminars have produced a number of baalei teshuva, some of whom actually left their positions temporarily to undertake a year's study at yeshiva or seminary.

 

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