The Community Center "Thia" was visited by students of Khmelnytskyi Specialized Secondary School of I-III Degrees No. 6 with a scientific supervisor and a large number of questions. The school, headed by director Andriy Mykolayovych Popyk, has repeatedly participated in the actions of the Hesed Besht Jewish Children's Foundation or conducted joint educational projects with us regarding Jewish life and history. So today both sides were happy about the new meeting and new proposals.
Tenth-grade students are participating in the All-Ukrainian competition “Jewish History of Our City”. They face a difficult task: to fit the history and present of the Jews of the city of Khmelnytsky into a seven-minute video clip. This is extremely difficult, since the first mentions of the existence of a community in the then Proskuriv occur in the 17th century, and the resettlement to these lands began in the 13th century! However, the most productive period remains the 20th century, from the beginning of which a lot of different information and its carriers have remained. Unfortunately, most of them relate to the pogrom and the Holocaust, but there are also mentions of the former glory of the local Jewish community.
When asked by the girls who could be called the most famous Jew of Khmelnytsky, everyone had to think together. From the new history, which is marked by the beginning of World War II, the most famous is Volodymyr Weiser. However, until the time when grief came to our land, the most famous was the famous public figure, entrepreneur and philanthropist Solomon Marants. His house still stands in the city center, delighting children with puppet shows, and the central Proskurov Street was named after the magnate. Although later it was hastily renamed in honor of the tsar.
The students got acquainted with the work of the Community Center and its cultural base. We hope that the girls will win the competition, because their enthusiasm and creativity, which the OC staff noticed during the conversation, would be enough for several such tasks. Proskuriv-Khmelnytskyi is rich in Jewish history and our task is to tell about it in various ways, integrating culture and taking care of the heritage of our people.
