The 4th issue of the 'Community life' magazine is devoted to the Jewish culture. There is no one integral definition for the term 'culture', and its connotations include such various concepts as 'the universal means of social communication', 'the system of values production' or simply 'the aggregate of all arts'.

'Art and Judaism' by Eugeny Levin of the Lookstein Center for Jewish Education in Diaspora, Bar Ilan University is considering the popular idea of culture and art being alien to Judaism. According to the author, in his 'Guide for the Perplexed' Rambam has addressed to the reader, who, while believing in the divine truthfulness of Torah, does not refrain from comprehending philosophy. With culture staying on the margins of the Jewish religious tradition, relating to the world of culture has always been problematic for a religious Jews. However, according to Eugeny Levin, Judaism does not contain any prejudice against culture. Moreover, analyzing the text of Torah and the works of Rambam Eugeny Levin comes to the conclusion that the creative ability is the essence of a divine nature of a human being and that being in contact with culture can be an integral part of the Jewish traditional way of life.

'Culture and Society' by Elena Zelentsova of the Institute of Cultural Policy examines the new face of culture in the changing world. The last 10-15 years have dramatically affected the face of the Russian society, with the new social stratification emerging. The three main functions of culture - to teach, to entertain and to help, have also gone through a renewal. The teaching function is now serving not only the children, but adults as well, who use cultural institutions to discover their own potential, the entertainment function has now been supplemented with more commercial elements and the social function is fulfilled when the projects are devoted to socially problematic issues. In modern society, the author claims, culture should become 'client-oriented' thus serving the needs of the people

the magazine represents two contradicting approaches to this issue. One is expressed in an interview with Konstantin Plotkin - the head of the 'Permanent museum exposition' of the St. Petersburg Jewish Charity Center. The exposition is an example of a community-oriented museum, where the exhibit is put together mainly with the help of the community members, for whom participating in the museum's activity is an important life experience. The museum comprises of two exhibits: 'The Jews of Russia: Catastrophe and Renaissance' and 'The Jewish Destinies'.

Another approach is expressed in an article by Valery Dymshits, a director of the 'Center for the Jewish Museum creation' of the Judaica Institute St. Petersburg. According to Dymshits, the Jewish museum should serve not just the community, but also the city as a whole, being an integral part of its museum complex. The project implies the recreation of the Jewish Museum in the building where the Jewish historical-ethnographic society resided in 1916-1929 in St. Petersburg. The collection of this museum later became a property of the Ethnographic Museum. The objects from these collections as well other objects from collections of St. Petersburg museums could constitute the part of exhibits in the new space

In the interview with the former director of the Jewish Cultural Center on Nikitskaya (Moscow) Boris Rubinshtein, the concept of this Center, that was established to attract the representatives of the Moscow artistic and intellectual elite to the Jewish life, is discussed. The Center is the place where cultural events as well as classes and workshops take place and is very well known in Moscow. Recently it has become on of the first establishments in the Jewish community that started charging the clients for participating in some activities. It is expected that this will enhance the Center's strategy and operations.

One of the Eshkol project coordinators Yury Sorochkin has told the magazine about this unique undertaking. The essence of the project is to promote Jewish and Israeli culture in Moscow. As a model for its work 'Eshkol' is taking not just the Jewish organizations, but also other cultural establishments, for example - Goethe Institute. In the framework of the project many activities take place in Moscow nightclubs. For the advertisement campaigns the coordinators use blogging as one of the means of communication with the audience, the programs vary and are very successful among different target groups.

In the interview of Lorin Sklamberg, the famous Klezmer musician, the essence of the 'Jewish Music' is discussed. According to Sklamberg, any contemporary Jewish musician is trying to acquire his identity by turning to the world musical heritage while retaining the Jewish impulse in his work. At the same time the Klezmer music itself is now a part of the 'world music' genre and thus has broadened its audience to non-Jews. While in the Untied States the Jewish musicians are experimenting and trying to find their own unique voice and manner for at least 20 or 30 years, this process is only starting in Russia and Eastern Europe. One of the examples of the Klezmer revival here is the KlezFest that attracts many people who are genuinely interested in the development of the Jewish culture.

'The Neoklezmer movement in the light of the cultural renaissance' by Dmitry Slepovich of Belarus Academy of Music is examining the history of the Klezmer movement. Its natural development had been halted by the Russian revolution and the Holocaust. In the Soviet Union former Klezmers started joining the jazz bands, and the whole concept of the 'Jewish wedding' vanished. The revival of the Klezmer movement started in 1960-s in the US, where the descendants of the immigrants turned to their roots. From the very beginning their work was experimental, incorporating many elements of blues, jazz and bluegrass, contemporary poetry and often demonstrating a postmodernist approach to Klezmer music. In the 1980s an interest to the culture of Schtetl has also aroused in the European academic milieu, thus allowing the Klezmer music into the limelight for the international, not necessarily Jewish, community. Several trends in the Neoklezmer music have been formed, with two of them more or less combining Jewish themes with the elements of other styles and the third being an attempt to authentically recreate the music of the past. In the article the author examines the diversity of the neoklezmer movement in Europe, US and Israel and comes to the conclusion that the Klezmer movement, while being closely connected with tradition, is a developing and living phenomenon