The city of Hlybokaye signed a social and cultural cooperation agreement with the Israeli city of Kiryat Bialik

Recently, the town of Hlybokaye was visited by a delegation from Israel, which included the Mayor of Kiryat Bialik, Eli Dukorsky, his deputy Nema Rachevsky, and urban planning consultant Igor Shimanovich. On the first day, during an official meeting, Eli Dukorsky and the Chairman of the Hlybokaye District Executive Committee, Oleg Morkhat, signed an agreement on regional cooperation in the socio-cultural sphere.

The head of the foreign delegation, Eli Dukorsky, told "Vitebskiye Vesti" about the significance of this document for both parties and the prospects for joint activities:

- The agreement is drawn up in two languages and provides for the development of friendly relations based on mutual respect and trust, - noted the Mayor of Kiryat Bialik. - It will help develop and finance specific projects and programs in the economic sphere, promote cooperation in entrepreneurship, establish partnerships between cultural and educational institutions, and deepen knowledge of the traditions and cultures of both countries.

For several days, we visited socio-cultural institutions of the city and district, agricultural enterprises, housing and communal services facilities, and familiarized ourselves with the activities of the land management service, road construction organizations, and the infrastructure of agro-towns.

We learned a lot of new things about your beautiful region. Hlybokaye is a very beautiful, clean city. Personally, I can say that during these days I felt like a resident of Hlybokaye. The visit to the Yuzef Drozdoch Children's Art School, whose teachers offered to paint a "malyavanka" (a type of folk painting) similar to those painted by your famous countryman, caused genuine delight.

- Hlybokaye and Kiryat Bialik are far from each other. What unites them?

- In today's world, distances of even several thousand kilometers are not an obstacle. If there is a desire to strengthen friendly relations. We are united by a history filled with the pain of losing loved ones. We want to express our sincere gratitude to the district leadership, to every resident who preserves the memory of those who died in the Glubokoye ghetto during the Great Patriotic War. Members of the family of Michael Etkin, who survived after visiting there, have visited here more than once. They helped establish a bridge of friendship between the two regions. Two years ago, a Glubokoye delegation led by Oleg Morkhat visited our city.

During a visit to Glubokoye Secondary School No. 1 named after Pavel Sukhoi, we were told that one of its graduates, now a third-year student at the Faculty of History of Vitebsk University named after P. Masherov, Yana Survilo, is preparing a research paper "Children and Youth during the Great Patriotic War". While still at school, studying the topic "The Holocaust in Belarus", she wrote about the Etkin family, using Michael's book of memoirs "Against All Odds, I Won" as a basis. We would very much like to invite her to Kiryat Bialik so that she can see how his children and grandchildren live and get to know them better.

In September, the national Israeli television showed a story about Glubokoye, the small homeland of the father of modern Hebrew, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. We also visited the square of famous countrymen and the historical and ethnographic museum, which houses many interesting exhibits.

- Is it true that Kiryat Bialik, with a population of 43,000, has 600 enterprises?

- Their number is rapidly approaching this mark. Your factories are mainly based on processing agricultural products, while ours work with metal and wood. For example, one large factory produces spare parts for Boeing aircraft. The city municipality has been awarded by the government of Israel for economic development.

We have a technological college, one of the largest in Israel, and you have a vocational lyceum where young people from Gluboksky and neighboring districts study.

You are rich in that you have endless fields and forests, while every inch of land counts for us. Buying an apartment is extremely difficult. Our city has about 15,000 apartments, and we plan to build more than 17,000 in the near future.

Glubokoye residents celebrated the 600th anniversary of their city this year. Kiryat Bialik is much younger. It was founded by immigrants from Germany 80 years ago. The settlement was named in their honor. Later, it was renamed Kiryat Bialik in memory of the Jewish poet and prose writer Chaim Nachman Bialik. This year, celebrating the 140th anniversary of his birth, a festival in Russian was held for the first time.

Our city, although located relatively close to the sea, is not spoiled by tourist attention. At the same time, there are many beautiful places for leisure, walking paths, zones, parks, and squares. The city has a shopping center, which is considered the largest in the northern part of the country. There are always many shoppers.

Previously, we signed agreements on close cooperation with cities in Germany, Poland, and Georgia. We believe that we will be able to establish strong friendly ties with the people of Glubokoye for the benefit of the residents of Belarus and Israel.

Diana Bernikovich, "Vitebskiye Vesti"