Interreligious Youth Seminar Held in Yaremche

Students of three nationalities – Ukrainians, Poles and Jews – participated in the sixth international interreligious youth seminar Kovcheh-2011 – Children of One God, which was held in Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast on July 27 - August 4.

Students of three nationalities – Ukrainians, Poles and Jews – participated in the sixth international interreligious youth seminar Kovcheh-2011 – Children of One God, which was held in Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast on July 27 - August 4. The Ukrainian Catholic University of Lviv has helped organize the event for the sixth time. The main mission of the meeting is to overcome stereotypes through mutual understanding.

According to the press service of UCU, during the week of the seminar, the participants met with scholars, public figures, artists of the three countries. These are, in particular, historians Aron Weis of Israel and Yaroslav Hrytsak from Ukraine, dissidents and human right campaigners Myroslav Marynovych and Semen Gluzman, Polish psychologist, Maria Tsikhon-Bitka, Director of Tkuma Center and Director of the Museum of History of Jews of Ukraine and History of the Holocaust, Ihor Shchupak and others.

The educational program was supplemented with an interactive component of the Ark, discussions, round tables, psychological trainings. A Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish Days with master classes were held as separate events to get to know closer the national cultures and traditions.

The Ukrainian day of the Ark was opened by a historian, Professor of UCU, Yaroslav Hrytsak who spoke about the questions of the historic memory. In his opinion, the Ukrainian historic memory is deeply divided and fragmentary which is mostly the result of the last five years.

A film by Roman Shyrman, “And There Will Be a New Day” about Ukrainian-Jewish relations was presented by the Vice Tector of UCU, Myroslav Marynovych. “Common history cannot be and has not been unified. We all the time think and compel others to think that our view of history is the only right one. But history must be freed from explosively aggressive forces, it must be, so to say, cleared of mines. We must hear each other, for without understanding of the pain of our nations there will be no interethnic harmony. Unfortunately, Ukrainians have not gone through the process of purifying the memory yet,” said Myroslav Marynovych.

The event was organized by the General Consulate of Poland in Lviv, Federation of Polish Organizations in Ukraine, Center of Holocaust Studies Tkuma (Dnipropetrovsk), Ukrainian Catholic University and Palace of Culture of Hnat Khotkevych with the assistance of the Foundation Assistance to Poles in the East and American Jewish Committee Joint.