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FREILEHE KINDER

Karaganda 27-29 June 2009

  The Fifth Central-Asian International Festival of Jewish Children’s and Youth Arts “Freilehe kinder” took place in Karaganda between 27 and 29 July 2009. Ten community centres of Kazakhstan and one Russian delegation presented their programmes. We would like to thank the sponsors of the Festival, the American Jewish “Joint” Distribution Committee, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and the Association of Jewish National Organizations of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Mitzva” for their support.

  The President of the Association “Mitzva” Alexander Baron opened the Fifth “Freilehe Kinder” on the stage of the Karaganda Drama Theatre named after Seyfullin. He addressed the contestants with a paternal speech and expressed a wish to educate and to support young people. The Managing Secretary of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan Maria Aleyeva welcomed the participants of the Festival and presented them with memorable gifts. In fact, “Freilehe kinder” is a hallmark of the Jewish culture in Kazakhstan. To make the Festival happen, a massive amount of effort and talent were put into its preparation by the Director of the Festival Irina Kozhanovskaya and the Artistic Director Irina Revenko. What serves as an inspiration for the organizers of “Freilehe kinder”, the enthusiasts committed to the Jewish renaissance? This question was answered by the President of the Association “Mitzva” Alexander Baron:

  “Our purpose is to teach the children the Jewish culture and to strengthen connection between different generations through the youth”. Many people took part in the preparation of the Festival – the sponsors, the organizers, the employees of the community centres and the parents of the talented children. A number of participants came to this Festival for the fifth time. The organizers and the educators still remember all the contestants, who through these years participated in the Festival. It is interesting to observe how children get older and more skilful, how new teams come along and very young talents make their first appearance on the big stage.

  The theme of the Fifth festival was “Jewish Holidays”. Songs in five languages - Kazakh, Hebrew, Yiddish, English and Russian sounded in a hall. The performing groups amazed the audience with the astonishing diversity of the Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish dances, and with a tremendous choreographic composition devoted to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. A harmony of images was reinforced by striking costumes, created specifically for each dance. Inspiring and elevating atmosphere of art and music reigned there. During the Jewish holidays, concerts are adopted widely in the communities, but the festival is an apotheosis of ethnic art. Here the children not only demonstrate their skills, but also learn from each other culture of folk dance and song, stage behaviour, and gain confidence in their capability. The desire to go to the festival stimulates a year’s work of training at home. A public performance requires serious preparation and mature decisions from the participants, whose age ranges from six-year-old kids to student youth. Communication is one of the main values of our time and serves to also be a glorious tradition of the Jewish Festival. It helps to start not only transient friendships in Karaganda, but years of eternal connections, calls and correspondence through the online community “Freilehe kinder” in “My World”, culture of relations and common Jewish values.

   The festival concluded with a gala concert and the awarding of certificates to the participants. “Freilehe kinder” does not distinguish between winners and losers; it is a parade of talents, rather than a competition, and it has a wonderful atmosphere. One can see young gifted people, smiling children and inspired adults all over the place. There is a wave of merriment with a note of melancholy at the end of the Festival - the holiday is over. From now on everyone will be working towards the new, Sixth “Freilehe kinder”. In a year’s time the Jewish melodies will sound yet again, hands will interlace in a folk dance, and pride for the Jewish people and their cultural heritage will enrich the children's souls.




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