50 years ago, Felix Lvovich Shapiro passed away. He was an eminent lexicographer and teacher, as well as the creator of the first and only Hebrew-Russian dictionary in the USSR.

According to Jewish tradition, the proper day for remembering a person is not the day of their birth, but the day of their passing from this world. In concordance with this tradition, representatives of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress contacted the descendants of Shapiro, who currently live in Israel – his daughter, Leah Prestina-Shapiro, and grandson Vladimir Prestin, to tell them that the Jewish community remembers the eminent scholar.
In 1954, Shapiro, a teacher of Hebrew in MGU, MGIMO, and the USSR Higher Diplomatic School, began work on a Hebrew-Russian dictionary at his own accords. Over the course of several years, Shapiro, having no aid whatsoever, created a dictionary of 28 000 words.

The dictionary was only published in 1963, after the death of the scholar, and became a phenomenon of Jewish culture in the USSR. In the 1970s and 1980s, Shapiro's dictionary had been reprinted many times in Israel, and was spread among otkazniks. It was highly valued by underground Hebrew teachers.

As EAJC Secretary General, professor Michael Chlenov stressed: “The EAJC, as other Jewish organizations representing the Jews of the former USSR, take great care to preserve the memory of a person who created a dictionary of a practically outlawed tongue during the years of state anti-Semitism. It was a unique instrument for mutual understanding between Russian Jews and Israelis, and it was also an instrument that helped in forming the Jewish identity. The legendary Shapiro dictionary was an irreplaceable aid to several generations of activists from the Independent Jewish Movement. The memory of Felix Shapiro is preserved in Israel, where his descendants now live. We want everyone to know that this distinguished lexicographer is remembered and valued in the former USSR, where he lived and worked, as an important figure in Jewish history.”