As our website previously reported, a large-scale student seminar of the STARS Ukraine project supported by Jewish Relief Network Ukraine was recently held in the Dnipro Jewish Community. Dedicated to the theme of Jewish pride, it united Jewish students from various Ukrainian cities – Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Kharkiv, Chernivtsi, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro.
An important component of the seminar was the performance of mivtzoyim (outreach activities). This allowed participants to put into practice the ideas and principles they learned about during the classes through live interaction with each other and with the Jewish families of Dnipro they visited. They helped these families perform a number of important Jewish mitzvahs, thereby strengthening both their own identity and that of those they helped draw closer to Yiddishkeit.
The seminar participants were divided into teams. The list of addresses, logistics, and all organizational work was undertaken by the Dnipro Jewish Community. The mivtzoyim took place on Friday, so the focus was not only on performing mitzvahs related to tefillin and mezuzah but also on the proper observance of mitzvahs connected to Shabbos. The Dnipro Jewish Community provided all the necessary items – challahs, candles, and juice for Kiddush – so that the seminar participants could help the Jewish families prepare to welcome the Shabbos Queen. The Dnipro Jewish Community also provided mezuzahs, which were affixed in Jewish homes, and tefillin for the men to perform this mitzvah.
“Personal participation in performing mivtzoyim is an important part of the educational process in STARS Ukraine, and it was also part of this seminar,” says the head of the “DJCY-STL-STARS Dnipro” project, Chaya Maltseva. “Our mivtzoyim are undoubtedly based on the directives of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and we strive to help students not only fill their own lives with the light of Torah and Chassidus but also to bring this light to others who need it. We are very happy that at our seminar, all participants joined in this extremely important work thanks to the support of the united and close-knit Dnipro Jewish Community under the leadership of its Chief Rabbi, Shmuel Kaminezki.”
