Ambassador Yuriy A. Sergeyev, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, visited the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn Thursday to view first-hand its efforts at educating children of all backgrounds.

Led by Rabbi Mendel Spalter, director of development at the museum, the tour was an outgrowth of an ongoing relationship between the institution and Ukraine’s Mission to the UN. Joined by Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, Sergeyev first viewed the museum’s temporary exhibition on the Holocaust.

During a walk through of the facility’s hands-on exhibits, describing the Jewish holidays and Shabbat, the diplomat – whose country is home to one of the largest re-emerging Jewish communities in the world – noted the importance of children being able to experience Jewish customs in an entertaining setting. Rabbi Nissen Brenenson, the director of education explained many of the Jewish traditions located in the exhibit.

Following the tour, Spalter and Kotlarsky briefed the ambassador about Chabad-Lubavitch activities around the globe, specifically those of the children’s organization Tzivos Hashem, a sister institution of the museum.

The Tzivos Hashem orphanage in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, received particular attention during the exchange. With a program that feeds hundreds of families each year, the orphanage also busses homeless children in from around the city in order to provide them shelter.

For his part, Sergeyev said that the museum had a lesson for everyone.

“The Jewish lessons [here] are inspirational,” he said. “But children from any country or background can be taught a message from here.”