The Ceremony of opening of the Jewish Open Air Museum took place recently in Kherson, Ukraine. The representatives of the Jewish community and the society and the city government were present at the ceremony.
The event was opened by the Director of the Jewish Secondary School of Kherson Igor’ Levin who gave the possibility to speak to the people whose ideas on sowing tolerance and interethnic unity of the citizens are materialized in this Museum – the deputy of the City Head Sergey Cherevko and the Head of the Jewish community and the chief rabbi of Kherson and the Kherson region Yosef-Itskhok Wollf.
Sergey Cherevko told that much work is being done by the government of the city to unite the national minorities and work out the attitude of tolerance between the city dwellers.
Rabbi Wollf spoke on traditional Jewish values. He told what exactly the Western Wall is for a Jew and what expectations the international Jewish community has after the Temple will be restored when Mashiah comes. Very warm was the wish of the Jewish rabbi for the day of joy to come that the Western Wall would see tears of happiness instead of tears of pain and sorrow.
After the touching moment of removing the cover from the Western Wall model the students of the Jewish School gave a mini concert.
To conclude the ceremony one of the authors of this open air project, the Chairman of the Public Committee for the Kherson city council Nikolay Muzyka gave a short excursion about this new historical and architectural ensemble.
