The “Bar/Bat Mitzvah UPGRADE 5786” course has concluded in the Dnipro Jewish Community. The program was implemented for students of the Levi Yitzchak Schneerson Jewish Lyceum No. 144, the leading educational institution of the Dnipro Jewish Community, with the support of “EnerJew Ukraine,” a project of the charitable organization JRNU.
Over the course of thirteen sessions, approximately thirty participants underwent an important stage of preparation for Jewish adulthood, studying traditions, values, and the fundamentals of Jewish life in order to enter this new life period consciously and meaningfully. The program was built not only as an educational course but primarily as a space for personal growth, the formation of responsibility, and the strengthening of Jewish self-identification. Throughout the sessions, the teenagers became acquainted with the most important aspects of Jewish tradition, gained new knowledge and practical skills, and reflected on the meaning of their upcoming bar/bat mitzvah stage.
During the concluding meeting, the Director of the Jewish Lyceum, Olena Krasnova, addressed the participants with words of greeting, wishing the graduates to enter the new stage of their lives with dignity and joy. All participants who successfully completed the program received diplomas, and in the near future, they will also receive commemorative gifts – tefillin for the boys, silver candlesticks for the girls, as well as a final concluding Shabbaton.
A vibrant part of the final meeting was an intellectual Kahoot game, during which the participants recalled the material studied throughout all thirteen sessions. The children performed excellently with the questions, demonstrating good knowledge and engagement with the program, and this time the girls’ team emerged victorious.
“The ‘Bar/Bat Mitzvah UPGRADE’ project helps teenagers not merely acquire knowledge but to undergo an important path of preparation for a conscious entry into adult Jewish life,” noted Beila Letychevska, Coordinator of the “EnerJew” club in Dnipro and Project Director. “On behalf of the Dnipro Jewish Community, we sincerely thank the Jewish Lyceum No. 144 and its director, Olena Krasnova, for their fruitful cooperation and for enabling the program to be held at the lyceum; EnerJew Ukraine and the Jewish Relief Network Ukraine for their support and for enabling us to help children navigate this important life stage correctly and meaningfully. We also express special gratitude to the Head of the Judaic Studies Department and Deputy Director of the Lyceum for Jewish Traditions, Aliza Rabinovich, for her teaching, support, and guidance of the participants throughout the course. This has been an important part of the journey of our participants, who, upon reaching the age of Jewish adulthood, will assume a new status within our united and cohesive Dnipro Jewish Community under the leadership of its Chief Rabbi, Shmuel Kaminezki.”
