Another year has passed. Life in Hesed is in its full swing.  Thus, our site can not follow the latest news. Therefore, from time to time I will insert some additions to the director’s page of our site.

Children’s programs have developed in their full entirety. Junior group “Mazl-Tov” (kids from 0 up to 4 years old) has been enlarged by the secondary one – “Ken-Eladim” ( kids from 4 up to 7 years old) and the senior- “Lev” (kids from 7 up to 18 years old). “Mazl-Tov” and “Lev” are the programs aimed for risk- group children (from not sufficiently provided families, large families, sick children, orphans and half-orphans, children from not full families). But “Ken-Eladim” is the program for everyone who has a wish as it deals with creative development and preschool training. Now, from the very morning our Hesed is getting full of children’s voices, their laughter and songs. And that is very pleasing not only for our employees but for elderly people, the clients of Daily Center and other social programs as well. Often the kids visit their grandmothers in Daily Center, singing and reading poems for them, and sometimes on Fridays they can appear during Schabbats. It makes faces of elderly people soft, breaking them into a smile.

There are a lot of news also in cultural life and in the life of community programs. We have already organized two Drama International Jewish Festivals “Constellation of Lion” and  Festival of  Decorative- Applied Art “Flame-mane Lion”. It  was fantastic! So much of talent, mastery and resourcefulness their participants from ten cities of Ukraine have brought with them! The exhibition was attended by about 2000 visitors. They expressed their thanks and gratitude in the visitors’ book. But closing of the Festival was a real show, finished by excellently prepared charitable auction. In general opinion, the Festival has become a real holiday not only for Jews, but for Lviv’s citizens of various nationalities as well.

International Scientific Conference “Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyy: dialem of  humanitarian choice within the conditions of totalitarian regimes”, which took place in “Hesed-Arieh” in November 2005, has become another important event for the city. The outstanding scientists from allover the world including Dan Michman, Schimon Redlich, Ahron Weiss, Myroslav Marynovych, Yaroslav Hrytsak have been discussing this extraordinary personality during  two and a half days of the conference. The Patriarch of  Ukrainian Geek-Catholic Church Lyubomyr Huzar  and Bishop from France Michael Hrynchyshyn attended the Conference and participated in it. The press of the whole world commented very enthusiastically this initiative of Jewish organizations, in particular of “Hesed-Arieh” and “Tkuma” Center from Dnipropetrovsk, their attempt to raise and investigate such a vital problem.

One more news - Daily Center was opened in Lviv Daily Center’s younger “brother”, our Drohobych branch “Hesed Goor-Arieh”.

I am sure that told you about all news, but briefly about the main.

Ada DYANOVA