Tashkent, 2011

1st Session

Theme of the camp: Jewish values

Every day is dedicated to one of the Jewish values (responsibility, family, memory, life, education, love, holidays, acting etc.). During the day children compare Jewish texts and attitude to a certain Jewish value in Jewish world and modern societies. Another aspect of comparison is attitude to a value in Israel, the Jewish state.

The format for presenting the results of the day long work is mass media. Every child can choose a type of media he or she wants to try that day (radio, TV, newspaper, outdoor ads etc.). In the evening all the campers and counselors meet to see the results of their work of the day in a form of social advertising promoting the value of the day. The first couple evenings were very interesting and the passion of the participants promises that the following evenings will be even more interesting.
One of the first days was dedicated to the value of communication. The group that chose that day to perform in the format of Internet media created visiting cards with the web-addresses of all the available Jewish social networks in Russian and gave out the cards in the evening to all the participants with a slogan flashing in the screen: "Jews, talk to each other!"

Anna Perper wrote the following article for the camp's newspaper:

Jewish people. What is next?

Moral priorities of Jewish people are different from others? I'm asking myself and this question turns in another one: what is the difference between Jews and other nationalities and religions? I think that every person should find his or her own answer to the question. Parents, friends or teachers can't just give you a ready answer. If you were born to Jewish parents no one can make you be a Jew. Our forefathers were dying for their right to be Jews. Some Jewish families today keep Jewish traditions, some – not. For me it is very important to know about my Jewish heritage, my traditions. I want my children to be aware of the Jewish history, culture and tradition. Some time ago I was lucky to visit Israel. Someone in the street told me a very beautiful saying: "There are Jews of hundreds nationalities living in Israel today". It is so right, from my point of view. We are living all around the world: from Russia to the United State, from India to Australia. We are all different. What unites us? My answer is Jewish values, tradition and history! 

Agnessa Avakova also shared her thoughts about Jewish values on the pages of the camp's newspaper:

Our life

Every person during his or her life builds a hierarchy of values. But if we think for a moment we see that value of life is a sort of a trunk that has in it all the variety of different values we care about so much – family, love, education, health etc. All the material values can't be compared to the value of life.
In 1966 a sever earthquake destroyed Tashkent, the city I live in today. Many people were stuck under the broken houses. Rescue workers were saving everyone they could find, Jews and Russian, Uzbek and Korean. They did not ask about education of family status of the saved people.

No one can take your right to life. Jewish tradition puts the value of life even higher than Shabbat. For me it means a lot!