Jewish Culture Festival in the Far East

KHABAROVSK, March 9, 2003 /from RIA Novosti correspondent Alexander Bugayenko – The first festival of Jewish culture has opened this Sunday in Khabarovsk (the center of the Khabarovsk Territory).

According to chairman of the Jewish Agency in Russia public organization Mikki Berezin, this festival is being held for the first time in the Khabarovsk Territory. It has been organized by the Khabarovsk branch of the Jewish Agency in Russia and the Mizrah local religious community. The aim of these organizations is to let Russian Jews become familiar with the national folk art.

According to Mikki Berezin, the festival is being held "on the threshold of the merry Jewish holiday of Purim, the joy and laughter of which symbolize the salvage of the Jewish people from full destruction in ancient times, during the period of the Babylon captivity." The festival will be held in two stages. At the first stage the Jewish folk groups will perform national dances and songs. The contest’s winner will go to the international Jewish creativity festival in Moscow.

The second stage will see the contest of purimshpils (merry theatrical performances), the performances by youth comic theatrical troupes from Birobidzhan, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and other cities of the region. The winner from among folk groups will go to Belarus to take part in the contest of purimshpils to be held in Vitebsk.