On June 20–22, the Kyiv office of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) held a training workshop with the support of the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Ukraine (VAAD Ukraine) for the workers of the international Jewish children's summer camp “Shorashim – Roots and Future of Diaspora Jews” (Shorashim – Caucasus – 2014). The training workship is the first stage of the international Shorashim project in Caucasus. The leader of the Shorashim project in Ukraine and the Caucasus is Dr. Natalia Bakulina.

The second stage of the project will be holding a pre-camp for the madrichim on August 17-19 and the camp itself for Jewish children of the Caucasus region on August 20-31. The camp will take place in Bakuriani, Georgia. The third stage will be a post-camp held to summarize the results.

An international team took part in the training workshop: the leaders of the project, the creative groups, the potential madrichim, and the teachers. Overall there were approximately 20 participants from Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Israel.

 

The seminar was held as a webinar over Skype.

The following topics were discussed during the seminar:

• contemporary methods and types of informal Jewish education;
• working methods and content presented at the international Jewish children's summer camp “Shorashim – Roots and Future of Diaspora Jews,” as well as the main points of the program's structure;
• ways to improve the Shorashim project;
• teaching methods in developing and planning a program and working methods for the camp, including how to take into account the children's interests and their psychological and mental needs;
• ways of organizing the children in the summer camp;
• interactive methods in informal education;
• organizing work with parents;
• legal aspects of organizing the summer camp;
• responsibilities of the camp's counselors;
• lectures and workshops by experts in Jewish Studies.

The main focus of the seminar was on educational techniques and on history and culture with elements of anthropological research.

The participants learned modern methods and types of Jewish informal education, discussed the main components of how the camp's program is structured, developed content for the Shorashim-2014 camp, proposed different methods and techniques for the international children's camp, learned interactive teaching methods and how to organize children in the camp, and talked about possible ways to improve the Shorashim project in the Caucasus as well as legal and organizational matters pertaining to its realization in this region.

Ways to consider the psychological, intellectual, age peculiarities, and interests of children from Jewish families in the Caucasus were discussed.

The educational part of the seminar was led by the the leader of the Shorashim project in Ukraine and the Caucasus – Dr. Natalia Bakuilna, a teacher specializing in informal Jewish education – David Kakiashvili, and the director of the Shorashim camp in Ukraine Natalia Bertosh.

An important part of the program of the preparatory seminar was the historical and cultural module with elements of anthropological research, which included lectures on the history and culture of Caucasian Jews, and particularly on Georgia, since that is the place hosting the camp. This module included lectures titled “History of Georgian Jews According to Written Sources” and “Jewish Folk Magic in Georgia According to Ethnographic Sources” read by Dr. Ekaterina Malakhova and the “Cultural Heritage of Georgian Jews” lecture read by Dr. Lela Tsitsuashvili.

The lecture and workshop materials included presentations, texts, and fragments from classical Jewish and children's literature, a bibliography (both printed and online), teaching materials and aids to help in developing the workshops that will take place at the camp, and aids in teaching the history of the Holocaust.

The sponsors and partners of the project were the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF, Great Britain), JAFI, and the Kyiv office of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.