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.

Director of St.Petersburg Hillel in the interview to Julia Nemenova speaks about the way the youth replenishes Jewish students' organization, its main specter of activity and motivations of the 'Hilel' programs' participants.

The article of Izhevsk newspaper 'Kiparis' describes the formation and the present work of the youth club 'Beit Hillel'.

A Stanford University professor and a wide-known author of research works on Jewish self-identification in the end of the 20-th century Arnold Eisen writes about the changes taking place in the American Jewish community. According to Eisen the community organizations may keep its power and influence only if they respond to the contemporary incentives.

In this issue we introduce the preschool education project developed by Samara teacher Tatiana Kurilova (vice-president of the Jewish Communities Association of Samara Region, the Maccabi Jewish Cultural Center). This project already runs successfully in Samara. The author of the project believes that the ambiguity of personality in the situation of assimilation often leads to development of inferiority complexes or, conversely, to ambitious-ness or even snobbishness. In the Soviet Union, where the state anti-Semitism was part of ideology and everyday anti-Semitism also existed, several stereotypes of Jews developed: a dissident Jew, a Jew depressed be his Jewish self-awareness, a Jew trying to mask his national origin and to assimilate as soon as possible with the local population. That was promoted by the total isolation from Jewish culture and traditions, from the great ethnical heritage acclaimed throughout the civilized world. Today the period of democratization of the Russian society gave us the opportunity to restore the Jewish self-consciousness. If we want to organize this process effectively in the modern Russia we must start with preschool age.

This year a unique for a Jewish community second higher education program "Hanoch" will start in St. Petersburg. The program was developed to prepare the professionals in the field of social work psychology, especially for the development of children projects. The program was initiated by the JDC and the Institute for Community and Public Workers. The graduates of this program will receive the St. Petersburg University Diploma of psychologist specializing in social work. 24 workers of Jewish organizations of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Uzbekistan with educations in medicine, psychology and pedagogic were enrolled in the program last summer.

Educational programs director of Russian Hillel Maria Endel will tell us about informal youth education.

"Community life presents the new initiative of the communities of St. Petersburg - creation of the Jewish St. Petersburg Community House (ESOD). The center is unique, since a number of Jewish organizations are building it together. The Jewish St. Petersburg Community House is a multifunctional Jewish Center designed to meet the needs of the diverse and liberal Jewish community of St. Petersburg, to promote the development of Jewish organizations and to become an integral part of the multinational life of the city. The activities of this Center will be based on the principals of pluralism, openness and common destiny of Jewish people, - states the Declaration of the Center. Today it's only a project, so one can learn about it only in our magazine.

Dr. Miri Weitzman and Edna Engel, Israeli researchers are discussing the problems, building up partnership between members of the community. The partnership must be planned, well balanced and develop change according to the current circumstances.

Julia Nemenova's interview with Alexander Frenkel, Director of the Jewish Community Center, Saint Petersburg on the problems of the Jewish Community, its future development and present situation in the local community, their approach to solving various problems. What is role of the Jewish community in today's Russia? What can we do in order to attract people from families with intermarriages? What shall be the criteria for efficiency of the programs?

Valeria Livshits and Marina Livshits on the project "Climate of Trust" in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan and view on the Jewish Life in the city. There is a theory about the Chazars who inhabited the territory of Tatarstan, practiced Judaism and was one of the lost Israeli tribes. UNESCO gave Kazan the status of the city of the world historic significance. Today Kazan hosts international forums on cultural interaction, ecology, tolerance, and multicultural education.

Anna Kazianskaya, Ways and techniques of teaching the history of the Diaspora within the framework of the seminar "Russia's People's Culture, History and Traditions", Yaroslavl center for Jewish Culture The ethnic situation in Yaroslavl is experiencing a significant change. Today the process of migration absorbed Russian speaking population of the FSU as well as the people of other nationalities and people from southern republics. So the idea of working out a project for school students to help them learn about traditions and culture of different nations seemed to be quite on time.

Julia Nemenova comments on the results of the recent Annual Jewish Book Festival held in Saint Petersburg and the situation in today's Jewish book publishing. This festival is a unique possibility for St. Petersburgers to learn about recently published books in order to be able to choose what they like.