On April 7-10, Almaty hosted the republican madric seminar, organized by the Jewish community of Kazakhstan, which is a member of the EAJC, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Over twenty young madrichim, future specialists in working with children in teenagers, took part in the seminar. They were from nine Kazakhstan cities.

Work with children and youth is currently a priority for the community. There are more and more republican and international projects oriented towards a young audience. There are annual events such as the Freilehe Kinder camp festival, the photo competition “Community Through the Eyes of the Young,” and the “Young Family” camp. And a camp for teenagers about the establishing of the State of Israel is planned to be held on July 6-9. Each of these projects requires qualified workers.

And so Kazakhstan hosted the first educational seminar for madrichim last spring. And now, after being held a second time, this event has become annual. This time the seminar has gathered participants from Almaty, Astana, Kostanay, Aktobe, Shymkent, Taraz, Karaganda, Pavlodar, And Taldy-Korgan. For four days, the participants actively interacted both with the teachers and between themselves, learning the intricacies of working with a children’s groups. The topic of the seminar was Jewish tradition and how to teach it in family camps and children’s groups.

The Ukrainian teachers Zhenya Lopatnik and Sasha Chevan impressed both the organizators and the young madrichim. They solved the most complex tasks through games and creative assignments, and were able to quickly establish contact with their audience. But however talented the trainers might be, it is impossible to become a professional madrich in four days. This is why there is a regular madrichim school in Almaty, and it is currently accepting new students. And the seminar was just in time to demonstrate how interesting and fulfuilling the madrich’s profession is, and how much it teaches the madrichim themselves.