On March 9, 2025, the Hillel Jewish Student Cultural Center, in partnership with Joint Ukraine, solemnly opened a new project called “Jewish Dnipro: Memory, Identity, Community”. The event brought together more than 25 students at the Gogol Hub business center, where participants had the opportunity to learn more about the project and its goals.
The event was hosted by the director of the Hillel ESCC, Alena Kolpina, and activist Maksym Kasyanov. Ms. Alena emphasized that the main goal of the project is to promote Jewish self-identification among students, familiarize them with the history of the Jewish community of Dnipro, its outstanding figures, and cultural heritage.
“Jewish Dnipro: Memory, Identity, Community” is an 8-month project that will include a number of different activities, such as tours of Jewish places in the city, lectures in the format of brunches with representatives of the Jewish community, intellectual battles and volunteer actions. This is an extremely important step for the development of Jewish self-identification among young people and the popularization of Jewish culture among all residents of Dnipro.
As part of the opening, participants had the opportunity to actively participate in the event, solving riddles and receiving key information about the figures they would meet during the project. They also determined the coordinates of the places they would visit and, through associations, tried to understand what “Jewish Dnipro” means to each of them.
Also present at the opening of the project were friends and partners of Hillel: teenagers from the Jewish teenage club Shahar Solomonika and residents of Moishe House Dnipro, which emphasizes the importance of support and interaction between various Jewish initiatives in Dnipro. This project is an important step towards preserving Jewish heritage and popularizing it among young people.
The first meeting within the framework of the project will take place on March 30, 2025. Anyone interested can join this exciting initiative by contacting the organizers via social networks at the link: Instagram Hillel Dnipro.
