The International conference "Alef-Bet - Zionism" was held in online format

Instead of the planned one-day conference, the international meeting “Alef-Bet-Zionism” has become a series of educational events. Some presentations on various aspects of Zionism were presented online.

During March, April and May 2020, most of the reports prepared for the conference were held online.

With such format it became possible for speakers to detail their presentations without any time limits and to answer all questions from the audience. Each broadcast was recorded. The availability of events allowed to expand the audience and to invite listeners living far beyond Kiev. Today most of the audience consists of representatives from different cities of Ukraine and Israel.   

The term “Zionism”, true meaning of which was distorted beyond recognition by Soviet propaganda, still causes distrust among the older generation and cool indifference among young people. With lack of reliable information in Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking popular sources, most of people who interested in this topic use simplified stereotypes and false ideas about this concept.

The mission of the conference “Aleph Bet – Zionism” is to talk about the true meaning of the term “Zionism”, about the events that preceded the creation of the state of Israel, and about the role of Ukrainian immigrants in this process.

The conference program is built in such way to enable everyone who is interested in this topic to get to know different sides of famous historical events and form their opinion, relying on factual materials.

To implement this, scientists and public figures from different countries — Israel, Ukraine, and European countries — were invited to participate in the conference as speakers. All the materials was presented accessible, with a detailed coverage of the general context.

As a platform for broadcasting became the online studio “Limonad-S”. Executive Directorate of the Zionist Federation of Ukraine with the support of the Department of Diaspora in World Zionist Organization in cooperation with Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University and Vaad of Ukraine launched the studio exactly at the beginning of the conference. The name of the studio refers to a popular phrase taken from the book by Dale Carnegie: "If fate presents you with lemon, make lemonade out of it." This expression perfectly describes the situation in the world when the only way to overcome troubles is a radical restructuring of consciousness. And then actions aimed at successful implementation of projects and programs in new unusual conditions.

The time and experience of recent months showed that the forced adaptation to new conditions gave a new unexpected impulse, and the project won by expanding of the audience, the possibility of inviting new speakers, as well as by the possibility of wider popularization of the ideas.

At the moment the on-line studio “Limonad-S” keep working, inviting new speakers and holding other interesting online meetings. Today, the Limonad-S studio has its own regular audience that is growing with every new lecture.

As a conclusion, it can be noted that the project has been successfully adapted to work in the new conditions. Moreover the offline meetings are also planned within the framework of the conference “Alef Bet Zionism”, which are scheduled to be held after quarantine ends.

The project team:

 - The founder and leader of the project “Aleph Bet – Zionism Conference”, organizer and host of the on-line studio“ Limonad-S ”- Executive Director of ZFU Elena Zaslavskaya,

 - Project coordinator - Elyzaveta Muchnik,

 - The operator and editor of video materials - Alfiya Shevchenko.

On behalf of the Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University the project oversees the Director of the Institute of Philology and Journalism, Prof. Svetlana Kuzmina.

Listen to the conference broadcasts via the links:

Zeev Khanin, Bar-Ilan University. Israel: “Electoral Behaviour of Jews of  Post-Soviet countries in Israel and Diaspora Countries”

Josef Zissels,  Vaad Co-President of Ukraine, Chairman of the ZFU, human rights activist: “Zionist component of Jewish identity”

Rabbi Dov Lipman,  19th Knesset Member, Senior Manager - Community Outreach for Honest Reporting, political correspondent for the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS.ORG), political commentator for ILTV and I24news: “Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel: the truth story”

Serhiy Hirik, PhD, senior research fellow at the State Research Institution “Encyclopedia Press”, senior lecturer at the Master program in Jewish Studies at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, vice-president  of the Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies: “Poale Zion as a “Soviet Party”: Trying to be both Zionists and Communists”

Lyudmyla Pavlenko, PhD, associate professor at the Department of World History and International Relations at the Taras Shevchenko National University “Chernihiv Collegium”: “Zionism in Chernihiv District (Okruha) in the 1920s through the Eyes of the Chernihiv District Committee of the CP(B)U”

Nadezhda Ermakova, PhD Ariel University: "The uniqueness of women's destinies in the struggle for the departure of Jews from the USSR”- the recording is limited to copyright.

Yonatan Feldman, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.  Meeting with Directorate

Saskia Pantell, “Anti-Semitism in the Digital Age”, the recording is limited to copyright.

Follow the announcements of the studio "Limonad" at the Facebook.