Philosopher S.Averintsev's article is the introduction to the current issue of the feature and publicistic almanac of the Institute of Jewish Studies. It is about the persecution of believers in the USSR. The prose section includes reminiscences (forbidden in Soviet times) of G.Snegiryov "Autoportrait 66", a story by I.Lesovaya, a Jerusalem essay by T.Akhtman, "The swan song" by G.Aronov and anecdotes on the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster edited by the famous producer B.Zholdak.

The poetic section offers to a reader the translation of Jewish popular songs (M.Lvovich), poems of P.Markish, M.Lisyansky, N.Nikishina, Y.Kaplan, I.Fefer and others. At the end of the section there is a play-parable by V.Orlov. It is called "Shalom, Soldier". The play is about the events in a shtetl in the middle of the XIX century.

Then comes the section of social and political issues where the Israeli rabbi D.Vice and his opponent M.Berenbaum carry on polemics on the contemporary understanding of Judaism in view of the Shoa tragedy. Tsvi Gitelman offers his analytical outlook on the evolution of Jews' moods in Russia and Ukraine in the XIX century. T.Voznyak and L.Finburg write how they understand the problem of Bruno Shults' frescos having been brought out of Ukraine. They have been found in Drogobych.

Memoirs include the pre-war story of the Belinsky-Gelfand family, recollections of the Gogolevs gentiles and many other interesting things. The poet Zaslavsky writes about his memories of the literary critic and expert of Yiddish E.Loitsker, writer I.Falkman, poet E.Drize and I.Buchbinder.

At the end of the almanac one can find well illustrated articles about Jewish art.

Egupets. - K.: Spirit and Letter, 2001. - No 8. - 437 p.