International Humanities Institute Is Abolished
The order of BSU rector, Vasil Strazau, on the abolishment of the institute appeared right after the identical order of Education Ministry. No explanations neither by Education Ministry nor BSU rectory have been made.
International Humanities Institute was founded five years ago and has existed due to the sponsors which have been interested in the renaissance of Judaic education in Belarus. It is due to those sponsors that the institute building was repaired; new equipment and computer machinery was bought. Besides, foreigners promised 30 million dollars for new institute buildings and hostels. The order of Education Minister, Alaksandar Radzkou, on the abolishment of the institute at the beginning of the academic year has been absolutely unpredictable for BSU authorities. When Alaksandar Kazulin was a rector, the commission responsible for negotiations with the Ministry on this matter had been formed at the deans meeting. At that time they just reached the agreement that the Judaic chair would be left but within some of BSU departments.
Jewish organizations are indignant at the authority’s decision and appeal to Belarusian public and international organizations. Here are the comments made by the leader of Union of Jewish Organizations and Communities, Jacob Basin:
(Basin) "There can be the only motif -- some subjective opinion of a person, who is highly-ranked in the state hierarchy. As there is none explanation, we can only pre-suppose that firstly it can be an attempt to abolish the Jewish schooling in the Republic. Secondly, according to some rumors, it is planned to create a theological department at BSU. Thus, it is possible that they are just 'cleaning' the space for the domination of orthodox education and the absence of other confessions disciplines in schooling.
Unfortunately, in Belarus there is no document under which the state policy as for national minorities could be provided. In a country where there is a distribution system of national product they don't invest a penny for the preservation and support to national cultures, -- I appreciate this fact as a crime. And when they do it for the account of the peoples, which enjoy the support of their Diaspora, -- they abolish those institutions, in which foreign money is invested, I appreciate it to be a double crime".
Last year it should have been the first graduation from the institute. Rectory ordered that the graduates had been given the diplomas, which confirmed their graduation from… International Relations Department of BSU. The students are on vacations now and still haven't identified their positions on this news.
Since 1938 in Belarus there is neither any Jewish school nor a college where the disciplines in Judaic culture has been taught. The abolition of the institute where the scholars, specialists-translators and those who could work in synagogues have been trained, in the view of the Jewish organizations representatives, is a strong blow for the whole Hebraic education in Belarus.