The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) has become the general sponsor for the Jewish Book Festival 2010, which has taken place in St. Petersburg on November 21-22. This is the thirteenth time this festival, organized by the Jewish Community Center led by Alexander Frenkel, has taken place in the “northern capital” of Russia. The festival was hosted by the famous Beloselsky-Belozersky palace on the Nevsky Avenue.

The festival opened with a speech by the representative of the general sponsor, who forwarded the greeting of EAJC President Alexander Mashkevich to the organizators of the festival and cut the red ribbon before the entrance to the book fair, which took place at the same time as the main events of the festival. “The international festival in St. Petersburg brings the Jewish book and the Jewish culture to the residents of Russia's cultural capital, thus serving the cause of strengthening tolerance and understanding between different people. Thus, it is natural for the EAJC to participate in the festival,” reads the President's greeting.

Publishing houses and books from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Latvia were all represented at the fair. A separate booth presented the EAJC publishing program. It was noted at the presentation of books published in the “EAJC Library” special book series and generally through the aid of the congress, that the current publishing program may not be too broad, but it is certainly very rich. The EAJC representative especially stressed that these editions reflect the main directions of EAJC activity – spiritual rebirth and the preservation of traditional values, the fostering of tolerance, development of intercivilizational dialogue, and the support of the State of Israel.

The festival also included a celebration of Jewish song, which brought together children's and youth collectives from the Jewish organizations of St. Petersburg. This celebration included a presentation of the Jewish “Lechaim” journal, a meeting with the famous St. Petersburg writer, laureate of the Booker Open-Russia Literary Prize Elena Chizhova, and the game show “Girls, Boys, and Children's Books” hosted by children's poet Mihail Yasnov.

The main event of the festival was the presentation of the poetry collection of the great Jewish poet Abraham Sutzkever, which are being published in Russian for the first time by the Jewish Community Center of St. Petersburg. The musical program of the evening included klezmers from St. Petersburg, Riga, Tallinn.

The festival finished with a concert titles “Unternational,” by the Moscow “jester and wandering scholar” Psoy Korolenko, and the American-German punk-chansonnier Daniel Kahn. Before the final concert began, the EAJC representatives gave a letter of thanks from the general sponsor to the local patron Andrei Gorbenko, who supported the festival.