Bridge to Tomorrow: Youth Gather for 4th Annual Black Sea Gesher

Music filled the air at the Mamaia resort, where a children's dance troupe from Constanta, Romania led scores of youngsters in the Hora and other traditional Romanian, Jewish and Israeli dances to commence the fourth annual Black Sea Gesher Students Seminar. Amidst beautiful beaches, over 140 youth from Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Bulgaria, including 60 from the host country, Romania, gathered for a four-day international "camp." The hugely successful event, held May 26-29, was organized almost entirely by Jewish Romanian youth, marking an important stage in the local community's development.

Black Sea Gesher (or "bridge") debuted three years ago as an event meant exclusively for students in Bulgaria, in the resort of Borovetz. But as the success and demand of the program grew, new methods were developed to enlarge its scope to include areas adjacent to the Black Sea region, including Greece, Serbia and Russia. Istanbul, Turkey and Odessa, Ukraine became host cities for Gesher retreats. Added to the series were reunions focused on families, held in Serbia, and on those who work in the Jewish communities, convened in Romania.

Yair Kamaisky, Coordinator of the Black Sea Gesher Seminars, shared the intention of holding similar conventions for businessmen from the region. As greater numbers of people are re-identifying with their Jewish roots, the project is aiming to bring them together with others who may share their interests or values.

Though many individuals are in the preliminary stages of rediscovering their tradition, Jews have had a presence in the Black Sea for some 25 centuries. They greatly contributed to the prosperity of the region, as well as to its culture and civilization. Additional Jews settled in this part of the world at the end of the 15th century, when they were expelled from Spain and Portugal. In fact, as late as the start of the 20th century, Jewish communities thrived in Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia and Romania. But these once self-governed communities were devastated by pogroms, the Holocaust and communism. And many local Jews who survived this period in history chose to make aliyah to Israel, leaving sparse and isolated Jewish populations in the region.

Four years ago, as part of a greater initiative to revitalize these once vibrant communities, JDC, in partnership with local communities and the Weinberg Foundation, initiated Black Sea Gesher, which continues to grow and evolve to meet the educational and spiritual needs of the region's Jews. Jorge Diener, JDC's Country Director for Bulgaria and Hungary, explained what separated this seminar from the ones before: "The first event in Bulgaria was organized only by the Buncher Leadership Training Graduates, the second, in Turkey, by the local people and the Buncher Graduates, the third, in Odessa, by the local people with the Buncher Graduates' help, while this fourth one was organized only by the local people." The Black Sea Gesher Students Seminar demonstrates the great strides made by communities in the region towards community development programming.

Welcoming the Shabbat on Friday night was very special for the girls, who lit candles that seemed to dance on the surface of the water at the hotel pool. Luciana Friedmann, one of the event organizers from Romania, eloquently described the scene of the Oneg Shabbat: "One could hear songs in Turkish, Russian, Bulgarian and, of course, Romanian. The voices rose spontaneously and the setbacks caused by the differences of languages did not matter anymore." As they sang, it became evident that these young Jews had come together to revel in their Judaism, and the community so long denied them.