Awards ceremony of the All-Ukrainian Student Drawing Competition "Ukrainian Jewish Encounter: Our stories are incomplete without each other — 2025" held in Kyiv

On 7 February 2026, the Sholem Aleichem Museum in downtown Kyiv hosted the awards ceremony of the All-Ukrainian Student Drawing Competition "Ukrainian Jewish Encounter: Our stories are incomplete without each other — 2025" and the opening of an exhibition of drawings by its participants.

For the fifth year in a row, UJE rallies talented youth around a common understanding of the history and culture of the Ukrainian people and other peoples that have lived side-by-side in the territory of modern Ukraine for centuries. In 2025, the competition was held in two categories: grades 10–11 and grades 8–9. The participants were students from general and specialized schools, gymnasiums, and lyceums.

Drawing competitions are very popular among school students because drawing helps them learn to express their ideas, emotions, and perceptions of the world, thereby boosting creativity and self-expression. The All-Ukrainian Student Drawing Competition "Ukrainian Jewish Encounter: Our stories are incomplete without each other" is particularly important. By producing drawings on interethnic relations, students develop a deeper understanding of and respect for cultural differences, which helps foster tolerance among young Ukrainians and improves their grasp of the history and culture of other peoples.

Students from across Ukraine participated in the competition. A special panel of jurors, composed of professional painters, art critics, and historians, evaluated the submissions and selected the winners.

At the beginning of the event, Vladyslav Hrynevych, Jr., UJE's regional manager in Ukraine, briefly outlined the competition's history and its previous editions before moving on to the awards ceremony. The winners were awarded prizes from the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, a Canadian charitable non-profit organization that organized the event. All participants received certificates and books on Ukrainian-Jewish relations, history, and culture.

Painter Iryna Klymova, Director of the Sholem Aleichem Museum and head of the jury, gave a professional overview of the winners' drawings and expressed her admiration for young people's talent and their ability to express their thoughts and feelings about different cultures through art. She noted that the competition serves as a platform for teaching children about diverse cultures and history, helping shape a more informed society.

Natalia A. Fedushchak, UJE's Director of Communications, mentioned in her address the difficult circumstances in which the exhibition was opened — at a time when Kyiv was without electricity and heating due to Russian shelling. She noted that her trip to Ukraine became very challenging and emphasized how important and symbolic it was to see that life continued even in such conditions, with educational and cultural initiatives, including competitions and exhibitions like these, still being held.

Svitlana Hrynevych, the administrator of UJE's Office in Ukraine and curator of the competition, spoke about interesting organizational moments that arose during the competition and thanked the participants for their excellent work. She invited everyone to the grand opening of the exhibition of works by the participants of the All-Ukrainian Student Drawing Competition "Ukrainian Jewish Encounter: Our stories are incomplete without each other — 2025."

The works of the competition winners can be viewed here.

Vladyslav Hrynevych, Jr, UJE's Regional Manager in Ukraine