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Alumni Conferences
Paideia Regional Alumni Conference in Kiev, 2010
October 8-10, 2010
Guest Lecturers: Vyacheslav Likhachev (EAJC/VAAD), Josef Zissels (EAJC/VAAD), Katya Malakhova and Barbara Spectre (Paideia)
The last regional Paideia Alumni Conference in a series of three throughout 2010 took place in October in Kiev – one of Eastern Europe’s oldest cities where Jewish life dates back to the 8th Century.
The conference was conceived and arranged by local alumni Helena Kushnir, who is the founder of “Moishe House” Kiev, Alexander Bobrovsky, who works for a human rights-NGO in the Ukraine and is currently completing his PhD and Sergeii Kulchevich, who works for the Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam.
The weekend program offered seminars on the history of Ukrainian Jews and the strengths and challenges of contemporary Jewish life in the region, given by heads of the major local organizations. 100.000 Jews are estimated to live in the Ukraine, though far from all are connected to a Jewish community. To break new grounds and find innovative ways of Jewish expression, Paideia alumna Helena Kushnir founded Moishe House – Kiev upon her return from Paideia’s One-Year Program. Together with Paideia alumni Tatyana Zaytseva and Natalia Yakimchuk, she opened up her living room and invited the conference participants to JewF.I.S.H. – a creative and mobile Beit Midrash that combines traditional text study with contemporary culture. Other weekend highlights were the historic city tour of Kiev and the presentation updates – giving a peak into the innovative work Paideia alumni are leading throughout Europe.
Special guest at the Kiev-conference was philanthropist Diane Wohl, the major funder of Paideia alumni conferences.
Paideia Regional Alumni Conference in Stockholm, 2010
April 23-25, 2010
During an unusually sunny weekend in late April, some 50 Paideia alumni gathered in Stockholm for the second in a series of three regional alumni conferences taking place in Vilnius, Stockholm and Kiev in 2010.
At the focus of the conference was rethinking European Holocaust commemoration and education.
Until now Paideia has put its emphasis on the future of European Jewish life, but students and alumni have expressed their concern with politicized Holocaust commemoration in parts of Europe and the complete lack of Holocaust education in other parts. The 200 alumni in 32 European countries are recognizing their political and intellectual force on this and other issues in Europe.
During the three-day conference, the alumni met in cross-regional groups to identify the most pressing issues in Holocaust education, to envision potential change, and to brainstorm specific programs that could cater to the needs. The weekend also offered inspirational meetings with actors in the field, such as the Forum for Living History, storyteller Amanda Glans, and Dresden-based artists Marion Kahneman.
Toward the end of the weekend a number of position papers were presented on the following topics: “Who should have the right to define the Holocaust narrative?,” “Should the perspective on Holocaust be widened to, for example, include human rights?,“ “The Holocaust as part of national histories – especially in the former Soviet Union” and on “The importance of presenting European Jewish Identity as something current and beyond the Holocaust.”
The weekend was concluded with a musical performance by this year’s graduate student, Walter Benjamin fellow Romina Reisin from Argentina.
The alumni gathering was generously supported by Diane and Howard Wohl.
I 3 – The European Gathering for Paideia and ROI Communities
Vilnius, February 17-21, 2010
Paideia and ROI Community held a joint regional meeting for the organizations’ alumni communities in Vilnius in February 2010.
Guest speakers/staff included Aharon Horwitz of Presentense, Clive Lawton of Limmud, Nirit Roessler of the Pradler Program, Sandy Cardin of the Schusterman Foundation and Barbara Spectre from Paideia. Read more about the gathering here.
Paideia Alumni Conference in Budapest, 2009
On April 30th, Paideia’s fellows set off for Budapest, to spend the European labor day weekend in the company of a significant portion of the 175 person strong Paideia alumni network.
The yearly alumni conference gathers members of the Paideia Alumni Association – representing 32 different countries. Budapest, with one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in Europe and home to a good dozen Paideia alumni, was an obvious choice of venue this year. Previous locations include Stockholm, Krakow and Olomouc.
Guest lecture highlights during the conference April 30th – May 3rd included:
Moshe Halbertal, professor of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Hebrew University and chairman of Paideia’s Academic committee gave a greatly appreciated talk on “Judaism and the Ethics of Memory”, defining how memory in Jewish tradition has implications in the spheres of ethics, faith and as a shaper of identity.
Michael Miller, Assistant Professor in the Nationalism Studies Program at the Central European University in Budapest presented “Coffee House Judaism – Jewish Cultural life in contemporary Hungary” – describing a contemporary no-frills approach to engaging Jewishly activities that is characteristic of Budapest.
Daniel Silverstein, emcee/spoken word artist, inter-faith activist, educator and events promoter based in London, presented Psychosemitic – a group of musicians who arrange rap and poetry workshops for interfaith education and Moishe House – creating a Jewish community out of your own home.
Paideia fellows and graduates gave presentations on the following topics, followed by discussions from the floor:
Natalia Yakimchuk: “The Zoharic understanding of evil and its impact on Sabbatian antinomianism”
Karina Shyrokykh: “Influence of Maimonides’ Political Theory on Leo Strauss’ Political Philosophy”
Martin Schubert and Piotr Mirski: “Personal Moses”, a Yiddish-short story musical
Linda Ban: “Everybody welcome! – Are they?”
Dominik Rößler: “The Song of Songs, Jewish and Christian interpretation as identity building”
Nikki Halpern: “What’s going on?”
Judit Schnabel: “Fat Margins: The Remnants of Auschwitz – through the eyes of its translator”
Marcell Kenesei: Presenting Haver Foundation
Anneli Rådestad together with Daniel Silverstein: “Leaving an Eco-Jewish footprint”
The Paideia Alumni Association was founded as an independent entity in 2002 and the yearly conference includes their grand assembly, where the board is elected, statutes are approved and future strategies are decided.
More than that however, the conference serves to re-acquaint with graduates from the fellowship year, make new connections within the alumni network, hear from local and international guest speakers and get to know the newest members of the Alumni Association – including a large number of presentations of their work during the year. With all the possibilities of virtual meeting spaces available today, there is certainly much to be said for physical interface between people.
The Paideia Alumni Conference 2009 was graciously made possible through the kind support of Diane and Howard Wohl.
Paideia Alumni Conference in Krakow 2008
This conference was held in conjunction with Paideia’s biannual academic conference, which can be found here.
Paideia Alumni Conference in Olomouc 2007
The annual Paideia Alumni Conference was held in the East of the Czech Republic in the city of Olomouc. It was organized by Petr Papousek, Paideia – Korczak Fellow and co-sponsored by the Czech Foundation for Holocaust Victims (www.fondholocaust.cz).
Besides being located on the Morava river and being the ecclesiastical metropolis of all Moravia, the city used to have one of the most ancient and famous synagogues in the country. Hence, it has had intensive and fruitful Jewish life throughout the centuries.
The lectures and workshops of the Conference were discussing the topic of holiness, with special insights into different Jewish texts. Lectures were given by Mira Balberg, this year’s scholar in residence, David Zissenwine and the Fellows of the Academic Track presented their projects. Barbara Spectre’s lecture, the Perspectives on: “Holiness and Land” was a worthy conclusion of this highly inspiring event. Intensive workshops developing new diverse project ideas were taking place non-stop.
Sara Stojkovic has become the Chair of the Paideia Alumni Association and new board members were elected as well, most of whom, as we can proudly note are the graduates of this year.
We keep all our senses open to the revival of Jewish Culture in Europe. Want to join us? Apply to the Summer Program – Project Incubator: