Students and teachers from the Dembava Pre-Gymnasium in the Panevėžys region visited the Panevėžys Jewish Community. They have established a Tolerance Center at the pre-gymnasium and wanted to make contact with the Panevėžys Jewish Community to learn about the history of the Lithuanian Jewish community before and during World War II, Jewish traditions and holidays and also to learn about the Holocaust in Lithuania.

The Panevėžys Jewish Community places special emphasis on the education of young people and teaching tolerance to dispel negative myths about the Jewish people, and to teach what happened in Panevėžys and other Lithuanian cities and towns when so many innocent people were murdered. A special game-show like panel was suggested during which students answer questions.

Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman told the students about the Jews who lived in common with Lithuanians before World War II, often owning joint businesses and living as neighbors. They celebrated holidays together, shared the good and the bad, and often shared their last morsel of bread as well. During Tsarist times and in independent interwar Lithuania, Russian, Jewish and Lithuanian children attended the same school, Kofman recounted.

The students learned about Passover, Purim, Rosh Hashanah and other traditional Jewish holidays their meaning. The chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish Community told the children about kosher food, why Jews pay so much attention to healthy food and clean dishes, and explained the meaning of the Jewish holiday Shavuot. The students also heard how Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai.

Chairman Kofman spoke as well about the March of the Living in Ponar on May 23. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas, Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Šapiro, Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius, Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon and Lithuanian ambassador to Israel E. Bagdonas as well as visitors from Israel all attended the commemoration, Kofman told the students.

At the conclusion of the meeting the students tried matzo and received as gifts Jewish calendars published by the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The cover of the calendar features Lithuanian president and Righteous Gentile Kazys Grinius and wife and the calendar contains a short biography detailing how they rescued Jews during the Nazi occupation at risk to their own lives.