This year brought new girls to the family of Beit Chana. They came from different cities and towns: Genichesk, Krivoy Rog, Svetlovodsk, Kremenchug, Znamenka, Khar’kov, Zelenodol’sk and Poltava. Among them are the 5 girls who will study according to the 9th form programme in the Humanitarian College of the Beit Chana International Humanitarian Pedagogical Institute. They are actually still children and are difficult to begin their studying in another city away from their homes and parents. Almost every one of them have to join the forgotten and lost traditions of Yiddishkeit and explore them as something completely new. This process is long and hard but the girls will certainly get help from all the Beit Chana staff, teachers and students.
One of the ways to help the girls join the Beit Chana family and get acquainted with the city and its cultural life and the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk is the decision to dedicate one day in a week to excursions, museums, cultural events, etc.
The first step was the excursion around the city last week maintained by the professional guide, teacher and narrator Alla Pavlovskaya. She showed and told the girls the historical center of the city, the beautiful city banks, memorial places connected with World War Two and defense of Dnepropetrovsk and other sightseeing places. And of course the girls visited the heart of the Jewish religious and cultural life of the city – the central synagogue of Rosalin Gorvin and the Jewish community center.
In the evening the Shabbat came. This was their first Shabbat at Beit Chana and the best Shabbat for the last several years. A warm, comfortable and unusually light. It felt like a big holiday was coming. But maybe it’s just the Autumn breath?
