At its peak, in the late 1990s, the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish day school enrolled approximately 700 pupils. Reflecting Jewish demographic patterns, enrollment has declined over the last several years. School opened in fall with 630 pupils, said Mr. Skarakhod; 40 youngsters emigrated with their families, most to Israel, during the school year. Their departure was partially offset by enrollment during the school year of ten new pupils. Enrollment will decline even further next fall, said Mr. Skarakhod, because the school has made a decision to sharply reduce the number of new pupils who are not halakhically Jewish, i.e., youngsters whose mother is not Jewish. The current non-halakhically Jewish enrollment may be as high as 30 percent, he continued, a proportion that is changing the character of the school. Therefore, the school probably will have only one first grade class next year (instead of two). It also will limit the enrollment of older non-halakhically Jewish youngsters who return to the city with their families from Israel. This policy may be difficult to express in an open manner because, as a public school, the school should appear to be available to everyone. A further complication is that, in some cases, the school cannot determine the true backgrounds of some pupils; identification papers have been lost and others have been forged in the turmoil that has afflicted the country during the last century. Some families really do not know their own history, and others find reasons for, and ways of, inventing fictional histories.

13. Rabbi Meir Stambler is President of the Beit Chana Women’s Pedagogical Seminary and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine (Федерация иудейских общин Украины). The Federation is an umbrella group embracing most Chabad activities in Ukraine; it is a branch of the larger Federation of Jewish Communities of the C.I.S., which covers most Chabad operations in all of the post-Soviet successor states.

Beit Chana was established in 1995 and currently enrolls 170 young women in its different programs. Girls who enter the seminary after ninth grade usually follow a four-year curriculum; those who enter after completion of the eleventh grade pursue a three-year course of studies. Graduates are certified by both Ukrainian and Israeli education authorities to work in one of three fields: early childhood education (pre-school and primary grades), early childhood music education, or child care. An agreement was reached in 2002 with the Crimean State Humanities Institute for new joint four- and five-year courses leading to Bachelor’s degrees in education with a specialty in teaching Hebrew as a second language. Eventually, Beit Chana hopes to offer its own Bachelor’s degree program.

The academic program of Beit Chana is housed in a former pre-school. Officials hope to expand the structure according to the architectural drawing shown at right. However, no funding exists for expansion of the current premises. A separate building serves as a dormitory.

According to Rabbi Stambler, between 20 percent and 30 percent of Beit Chana students are not halakhically Jewish upon entrance to the institution. However, he continued, the fact that all students live in one dormitory and are under close supervision at Beit Chana facilitates their conversion to Judaism during their time at the seminary. Faculty members are able to work with each young woman as an individual and to supervise her conversion course.41

Seventy-four graduates of Beit Chana now are working in Chabad day schools throughout the post-Soviet states, said Rabbi Stambler. About 20 graduates work in other Jewish settings, for example, as Hebrew teachers in Jewish Agency ulpans, in the post-Soviet states. Others have gone to Israel or to Germany, where they also work as teachers in various Jewish institutions.

Beit Chana takes great pride in its Center for Information Technology, which was installed with substantial assistance from ORT. The Center teaches basic computer technology, computer skills for teachers, computer education methodology, development of multimedia teaching materials, and related skills. The Jewish Agency for Israel recently established a video-conferencing center at Beit Chana, a program that is available to others in Dnipropetrovsk as well. Beit Chana uses the video-conferencing facility mainly for seminars with instructors in Israel.

Third- and fourth-year students at Beit Chana spend seven weeks in Israel, learning at Orot Israel College, a religious Zionist institution for young women. En route to Israel, the students spend four days in Poland, studying the Holocaust.

Jointly with Ohr Avner, the Chabad education authority, Beit Chana operates Beyachad (Hebrew, Together), a program of continuing education for Beit Chana graduates out in the field. Beyachad holds several seminars annually, provides methodological support by Internet, and publishes pedagogical literature, including material about holidays and teaching guides.

Beit Chana also has developed a Special Needs Education Resource Center that provides 30 youngsters with various disabilities with learning sessions, different therapies, and socializing opportunities several days each week.42 Most of these youngsters are effectively excluded from public school programs because few public school systems in Ukraine offer special education, few public buildings of any kind in Ukraine are handicapped-accessible, and transportation generally is not available. The Center hosts a special-needs education course for Beit Chana students and provides students with opportunities for practice teaching and volunteer activity in a special-needs framework.

41. Beit Chana readily acknowledges difficulties in finding qualified Jewish young women eager to enroll in their programs. See the author’s Jewish Community Life in Eastern Ukraine, April 12-28, 2002, p. 19.
42. Space limitations prohibit daily participation by youngsters.
43. Many such children are from single-parent families in which the custodial parent is an alcoholic, narcotics addict, or suffers from psychological or other problems. Some parents are in prison. Other children are in the legal custody of grandparents who find it difficult to cope with active youngsters. Some families are overwhelmed by poverty. A few children are from small villages and towns; they have been sent by their families to Dnipropetrovsk to take advantage of greater educational opportunities, including the opportunity to learn about their Jewish heritage. Similar programs exist in other Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Korosten, Zhytomyr, Odesa, Donetsk, and Kharkiv; a second dormitory program opened in Kharkiv in 2003 (see below) and a new program in Zaporizhya will open in September 2003.
44. See p. 10 for further information on the CIS Development Fund.
45. Boys from the dormitory constitute the majority of pupils in the yeshiva program of the day school. One of the reasons why all are enrolled in the yeshiva, said Rabbi Kaminezki on an earlier occasion, is that the extended day of the yeshiva program assures that all boys are occupied in constructive activity from early morning until late in the afternoon.