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

Report on the work of the Moscow 1st International Seminar within the framework of the project LaboraTORIA which took place in December, 2004. Producers and playwrights from Russia, Israel, Great Britain, Austria and Poland attended the seminar.

The director of Regional Center of modeling of functioning of institutions with Jewish ethno-cultural educational component Tatiana Feldblium will share with us the details of her work. She will tell us about the specialized education necessary for the Jewish schoolteachers and explain where one could receive the necessary education. For example, in 2002 at the courses organized by the Regional Center in cooperation with the pedagogic club "New Jewish School" 63 teachers received training in four specializations (Jewish literature, Hebrew, history, tradition), in the last year already 110 teacher received training in 8 specializations (plus music, art, school theatre, English language). In this year already 70 teachers not only from the schools of formal education but also from Sunday schools and cultural centers were able to raise the level of their proficiency at the courses. After attestation the participants receive the official certificate of the Moscow Institute of Open Education.

In September of this year the VIII Congress of Interregional Association of Heseds of Russia took place in Moscow. The Heseds - members of "ledud Hasadim" participated in the congress. This year the Heseds of Makhachkala, Ulyanovsk, Vladi-vostok, Birobidjan, Nalchik and Orenburg joined their colleagues at the congress. The delegates paid significant attention to foundation and registration of "The Foundation for Support of Heseds", elected the Board and the Management of the Foundation.

Arieh Doobov Children's Initiative and Social Partnership - JDC's new project addresses additional group vdth unmet needs: 'at-risk' children and families. A community forum with representatives from Jewish Community Centers, synagogues, welfare agencies aiding the elderly, schools, kindergartens, doctors, psychologists, as well as parents must to determine the principles upon which the new program should be developed, locate local expertise, advise what professional support they require from JDC, undertake needs assessment, prioritize needs, and formulate proposals for providing a new service for which they would be collectively responsible.

Gregory Zeltser Renaissance of the Jewish Theatre A recently released Anthology of Jewish Drama for the first time presents masterpieces of Jewish drama published in Russian for the first time and provides a detailed commentary on Jewish realia, philosophy and tradition. Most of the plays written in Yiddish were forgotten both in the Diaspora and in Israel. In the Diaspora this was caused by the assimilation process and in Israel the reason was the process of building a new culture free from galut complexes. It is difficult to build up the future without remembering the past. Even though not all of the plays are of interest for the reader, they did exist and they do exist and they make the foundation for the Jewish theatre. Boris Entin, From his Foreword to the Anthology of Jewish Drama Brief review of the History of Jewish Theater in Russia and its inherited tradition. Jewish drama came into being as a Pu-rim carnival show performed by amateurs as well as by wandering groups of actors and in the course of fifty years it has developed into a bright cultural tradition with its own standards and values.