Summer and Winter Schools on Jewish Studies in Kharkov
The term “summer school” is well known to anyone who is familiar with the history of science in recent decades. In the 60s and the 70s, Y.M. Lotman – a great scholar and enthusiast of humanitarian learning, set summer schools on semiotics and the history of culture in Tartu. It was a unique phenomenon: a mixture of flexible schedule, academic correctness, free thinking to a degree, and informal interaction stimulated new ideas, a rapid growth of creativity among young researchers. Summer schools on the Exact Sciences have also emerged in due time.
So, our young schools on Jewish Studies can be justly proud of their excellent pedigree. The first school on Jewish Studies in the NIS countries took place in the summer of 1998 in Mendeleyevo (the Moscow Region). Together with the annual students’ conference, the opening of the Centre for Judaics and Jewish Civilisation Studies at Moscow Lomonosov State university, monthly student exchanges with the Jewish university of Jerusalem, the School became part of a large-scale series of events aimed at enhancing research into this area of human knowledge. Dozens and, later, hundreds of students from the NIS countries took part in those programmes. Soon Moscow as a centre of Jewish Studies was joined by other cities: a Jewish university was opened in St.-Petersburg, a centre for Bible and Judaic Studies made its appearance in St.-Petersburg State university, EUB ISU (the first higher educational establishment of this kind in a non-capital city) came into being, and started preparing specialists in the history and culture of Jewish people, too.
It was no other than EUB ISU, however, that was entrusted with the honour of hosting the first School on Jewish Studies in Ukraine in the summer of 2000. Partner-members of this ambitious project were the Jewish university of Jerusalem, the “SEFER” Centre of university teachers and scholars of Judaics, the “Sohnut” Jewish agency, and “Joint” – an American Jewish distribution committee. Leading specialists in various branches of Jewish Studies, such as M. Vaiskopf, Z. Kopelman, V. Chernin, Z. Khanin, V. Mochalova, Z. Elkin expressed their wish to teach at the School. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that, at the time, the attention of the world’s Jewish scholarly community was drawn to the Kharkov first School. Its success testified to high standards of EUB ISU academic development, its great research and organisationasl potential. That was how the significant tradition of holding “schools” in Kharkov was born.
During the 2001-2005 period such schools were ogranised in a picturesque spot not far from Kharkov, the 2006 event took place in the environs of Dnepropetrovsk.
The Kharkov School has acquired a distinctive character: in accordance with the main directions of research carried out at EUB ISU, the School began to specialise in themes related to the history and culture of the East European Jews. The School is now a week-long educational event combining lectures by renowned academics, submersion into Jewish academic culture and tradition, intense exchange of ideas, research plans, and hypotheses. An obligatory practical archaeology session on Khasar Studies conducted by prof. V.R. Mykheyev – outstanding expert on Khazar research – has emerged as the School’s main distinguishing feature. Since 2000, the EUB ISU International Centre for Khazar Studies has been holding annual excavation expeditions in search of 8th-10th century relics of the Saltov culture which existed in the Crimea, the Don and the Donetz regions and experienced a strong influence of the Khazar Kaganate. Leading Russian and Izraeli scholars enjoyed teaching at Kharkov schools. Among our permanent participants are M. Beizer, V. Petrukhin, T. Kalinina, N. Mai, Gkazovsky, L. Matsyh and others.
The Kharkov School is an international one: it attracts participants from Russia, Byelorus’, the Baltic states, and those of Central Asia; the average number of attendees varies between 60 and 70 people. A substantial part of that is allotted to ISU students in order to give them an added opportunity to specialise in Jewish Studies, broaden their scope and research experience.
The number of summer schools conducted in recent years in different NIS cities has grown: schools have emerged in Byelorus’, Western Ukraine, Transcaucasia, the Crimea. In 2002 the first school of this kind took place even “further abroad” – in Poland. The variety network of schools has also been extended: schools now can take different forms: there are stationary schools held in one particular place and featuring academic lectures only; there are also “movable” field schools, including workshops and practical sessions on archaeology, epigraphy, sourse study, etc., which can travel from one city to another.
Among all that diversity, the Kharkov School, with its unique character, its sincere generosity and hospitality, its friendly creativity-inspiring atmosphere, certainly stands apart.
Since 2001, International Solomon university has also been host to a Winter School on Jewish Studies for senior secondary school pupils and junior university students. This School is also primarily concerned with history and culture of the East European Jews but differs from the Summer School in the number of participants (more limited), the area covered (limited to Kharkov and its adjacent regions), the time of duration (limited to 3 or 4 days). The Winter School, typically held in February, brings together 40 to 50 senior secondary school pupils interested in Jewish history and culture. Many of them then take part in the spring conference for senior secondary school pupils, some later apply for admission to ISU.