The presentation of Isaak Grinberg’s book "Jews in Alma-Ata" took place in the City Children’s Library with the participation of the Republican Jewish Library. The second edition of the research of the Jewish history in Kazakhstan was published at the end of 2009 under support of the Ministry of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan and Mitsva Association.
The conference room was full. Directors and employees of city libraries, archive representatives, writer Adolf Artsishevskiy, and lovers of history came for the event. The audience was watching photographs projected on a large plasma screen of Trotskiy, Brusilovskiy, Erzakovich, Kogan, and other persons who made a great contribution to the development of Kazakhsan culture, science, and politics.
Sofya Kumarovna Rayeva, Director of our favorite library "Begalinka" opened the event, "Our roots are in childhood. Children’s literature of the Soviet period, which we were reading while growing up, was almost totally written by sons of Moses. I am very glad that such a book, "Jews in Alma-Ata" was published. My life has been always connected with Jews. My doctor was Asya Borisovna Lopotukhina. I was a child of Semipalatinsk region and she cured me. Only thanks to her I made up my mind to give birth to my daughter. Now I already have grandchildren. My sister started working under the guidance of Iosif Solomonovich Feldman. She still talks about him with admiration. I can continue talking about Jews in my life forever. I am sincerely grateful to Jews. For all of us it is important to know and remember our history."
Isaak Ezrovich Grinberg was elegant as usually. He told a joke about a writer, relevant to the event. Then he added seriously, "I got this idea unexpectedly. I could not guess what work I was starting. The book was written by the hit and miss method in the archives and libraries. Tatyana Vasilevna Zhilkina helped me a lot; she compiled materials for the first and second editions. I met with people who told about those they had been at school and at work together with pleasure, and I met those who did not want to write a word about their former friends. We are all guests in this world. People’s memory is not a perfect tool. Unfortunately, I could not include stories about many people of whom I wanted very much to write about because of the lack of information. The second part of the book is the past of our city. Unfortunately, Almaty history is badly researched. Levon Isayevich Mirzoyan, when he was the First Secretary of the Communist Party in Kazakhstan in 1933, wrote to Lazar Kaganovich, "What a terrible place Alma-Ata is! It is a lousy village, much worse than any village in the North Caucasus."
Charismatic and bright Sofya Kumarovna Rayeva was again given the floor. "I feel ashamed after your words. I do not know the history of my parents. Children are great egoists. They think that their parents will live forever. Alma-Ata is a sore subject for me. New buildings are being built all over Almaty but nobody knows whether it is good or bad. Once I was asked by the French Embassy to organize a meeting with a visiting landscape designer from France. I always tell children that it is very important to choose the right profession and told them that landscape design is an interesting occupation. Thus we organized the meetings. This French landscape designer surprised me. He said he was sorry to see that we do not promote the beauty of our mountings, new buildings are built higgledy-piggledy. If he is buying a BMW he takes into account the car exhaust fumes, how the fumes will affect Paris environment in two decades when his children grow up. And we here we live with the principle to have as much as possible for yourself, the more the better and now. What happens to the city in future? Is anybody interested in it?"
Grinberg’s assistant Tatyana Vasilevna Zhilkina expressed her gratitude to the author, "I am grateful to Isaak Erzovich that he wrote this book. I am particularly grateful for the chapter about school teachers. He wrote about my favorite teacher Rozaliya Aronovna, who prepared me for contests, and about Director of our school Grigoriy Abramovich Dresler. All my teachers were highly professional, almost half-gods. I am happy that Isaak Ezrovich did not forget about my dear teachers. Time flies and we forget many things."
Isaak Grinberg has been working in many archives and libraries. He expressed his gratitude to everybody. Director of the Central Scientific Library of the Science Academy Kulzhihan Kulsharipovna Abugaliyeva shared her observation, "I would like to say that Isaak Ezrovich is a hardworking, sunny person, and to some extent he is a fanatic. He won’t stop until he gets to the core of the things. This book was not created by chance. I am sure somebody will continue this work. It may be you, Issak Ezrovich, or somebody else."
Galina Udovna Korobkina, Director of the Republican Jewish Library summarized the event, "Our meeting went in a warm friendly atmosphere. Everybody recollected something important to him/her. I wish Isaak Ezrovich good health to be able to do the third publication. I thank everybody for coming."
Leitmotif of all speeches was, "Thank you, Isaak Ezrovich, for this interesting and much needed book." The meeting went in a warm and friendly atmosphere. When the event finished nobody wanted to leave and we continued talking over tea.