The fall semester of the School of Dialogue program has come to an end. It was a big challenge due to epidemiological situation and the measures implemented, we had to give up on in-person meetings between educators and students during workshops. We made every effort to ensure that online workshops keep up the quality. Today we can breathe a sigh of relief because we can see that this year’s difficulties related to the pandemic stimulated creativity in solving them.
We are glad that students not only prepared a mandatory virtual tour following the footsteps of the local Jewish community and promoted it among inhabitants of their towns, but also undertook many additional activities. Students initiated important commemorative actions, organized online meetings for town inhabitants and set up fanpages about the Jewish history of their towns.
With a serious sense of responsibility they decided not to visit their grandparents or elderly neighbors; for the same reason, they could not organize a walking tour. Nevertheless, they kept researching about the forgotten history of the pre-war Jewish community. Educators and Leaders of Dialogue supported their efforts and shared knowledge about their town history, gave advice about commemoration projects and the use of archival documentation or inventory of cemeteries. Some students also managed to get in touch with the descendants of Jews from their town.
