For the fifth consecutive year, students from across Ukraine participated in the prestigious academic Olympiad at the Beit Menachem Ohr Avner Chabad day school in Lugansk, Ukraine. All municipal schools in the country participate in the contest which tests students’ mastery of main academic subjects.

When the event was first hosted by the private Jewish school five years ago it represented a milestone for the Jewish community which succeeded in persuading local education authorities to allow its participation despite the fact that it does not conduct classes on Saturday. The Olympiad was a great success and hosting duties soon became tradition for Ohr Avner.

“For the first two years we had to convince (the authorities) to allow us the honor of hosting,” explains Chief Rabbi of Lugansk and local Chabad emissary, Rabbi Sholom Gopin. “Today we have reached a point that we are forced to turn away some of the interested schools due to a lack of room.”

This year, more than one hundred third and fourth grade students converged on the city to compete for the top academic prizes in the subjects of Mathematics, Russian, Ukrainian and English. The friendly intellectual competition serves as a motivating factor for both students and teachers to achieve optimal excellence in their studies.

Tanya Vertinikova, Deputy Mayor of the city and head of the local Ministry of Education, who presided over the administration of the tests, praised Ohr Avner’s high level of educational standards and achievements. The accomplishments were particularly impressive considering that aside from the full government school program, Ohr Avner students must complete an additional six to eight hours a week of Hebrew and Judaic studies.

Lugansk’s Ohr Avner day school acts as a trailblazing institution for the active Jewish community, under the auspices of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, and has been critical to the revival of Jewish life in this east Ukrainian city.