Over two Sundays in October, The Together Plan are opening up their doors to welcome you to Zoymen, an exciting online event with a warm and friendly atmosphere and so much to explore.
Broaden your horizons and come on the journey – you won’t be disappointed. There is something for everyone with some fascinating opportunities to join the DIALOGUE which is this year’s theme of the European Days of Jewish Culture Festival taking place across the whole of Europe, and which Zoymen is a part of.
So what can you expect to discover at Zoymen…..? The event will open at midday BST on Sunday 10th October with a welcome session to set the scene for the event and from 13.00 event attendees will have a choice of sessions to attend at each time slot on the hour throughout the day. The end of the day round-up will be a fun quiz (facilitated in Russian and English) to allow for inclusivity and togetherness.
Day two will take place the following Sunday with an equally exciting lineup of events. The day’s opening session will be a warm and friendly welcome back and a chance to find out how and why The Together Plan is putting Jewish Belarus back on the map as they build a Jewish Cultural Route through the country! Participants will then be able to choose from an array of fascinating sessions and for those in the UK – there will be a film screening with special guest Robert Rinder MBE.
Gil Hovav, Jonny Benjamin MBE, Robert Rinder MBE and Simon Glass
Here’s a snapshot of what Zoymen has on offer:
- Meet the Chernobyl survivor from Bobruisk, Belarus who is now part of the Covid task force in New York in discussion with a Chernobyl survivor still living in Belarus.
- Find out how The Together Plan is piecing together the broken pieces of the lost Brest-Litovsk Jewish cemetery.
- Learn about Eliezer Ben Yehuda, one of the founding fathers of Zionism and the man who revived the Hebrew language almost single-handedly.
- Learn more about the AEPJ and how in the field of Jewish heritage, we are facing an opportunity, through transnational collaboration, to rethink the role of citizens, institutions and public bodies in the field of Jewish heritage project development.
- Meet Simon Glass, BBC Documentary filmmaker from Leeds who traced his ancestry story to a small village in Belarus.
- Find out how teenagers are becoming history makers with The Together Plan.
- Dip into the world of the Belarus archives and how The Together Plan is helping people to find their family documents.
- Find out how young adults at The Together Plan are building a global network of social activists and how to be part of it.
- Learn about the Jewish partisans and the new narrative around living memorials.
- Join the conversation with Solutions Not Sides and hear from an Israeli and a Palestinian and their hopes for the future.
- Hear from Los Angeles film-maker, Stephen Grynberg, the son of a survivor from Belarus and how he has worked to fill the void left by his father’s unwillingness to talk about his past through research, storytelling and film.
- Discover how The Together Plan is putting Jewish Belarus on the world map.
- Hear from young Belarusians about the projects initiated by The Together Plan that they are now participating in Belarus connected to Jewish history, heritage and identity and why it matters.
- Meet the Canadian Jewish actor and playwright with Polish ancestry, whose journey with his mother changed his life forever and how he is now a Jewish activist living in Krakow.
- Join the discussion to find out how the pandemic brought Jewish youth closer together.
- A hands-on workshop about the challenges concerning contemporary antisemitism. How is antisemitism being combated in Europe today and what can you do about it? Discuss some cutting-edge approaches from the field.
- Find out the cause and effect of Soviet Yiddish propaganda on the Jewish population of the Soviet Union – using six posters from the Blavatnik Archive.
- Learn more about the Global Jewish Pen Pals Programme that is connecting people across the world.
- An interview with Belgian born author Sylvie Heyman discussing her book Beyond the Holocaust: An Immigrant’s Search for Identity her personal narrative as a refugee, with her family, from Europe during World War II.
- In conversation with Frida Reizman, Minsk Ghetto survivor – who still lives in Minsk and never left.
- Award-winning mental health campaigner, film producer, public speaker, writer and vlogger, Jonny Benjamin MBE in conversation with his father Michael Benjamin – where they will speak openly about their experiences with mental health and the impact this has had on their family.
Screening of The Mystery of the Black Book (available to UK attendees only) and Q&A with the filmmaker hosted by Robert Rinder MBE.- The National Library of Israel will be showing a new exhibition on the theme of Dialogue – reflecting how dialogue is threaded through Jewish material culture, learning, interchange across generations and within Jewish society and the interactions with our neighbours.
- And there will be a fun quiz and live Klezmer from Minsk!
The programme is fascinating, fun, broad and bold. With something for everyone. Come along to learn, listen, laugh and cry, converse, commune, communicate and connect.
Click here for answers to questions people are asking about Zoymen.