XXIII Annual International Conference on Jewish Studies, organized by the Center for University Teaching of Jewish Studies "Sefer", member the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), has opened in Moscow. EAJC has become a sponsor of the conference along with the Russian Jewish Congress, JDC and the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS).
The conference was opened by Prof. Michael Chlenov, EAJC Secretary General and Chairman of the "Sefer" Academic Council. The audience was welcomed by Boris Belodubrovsky, Counselor of the Embassy of Israel in Russia; Alik Nadan, Director of CF "Joint" in Moscow and Central Russia and Marina Suslova, the Regional Director of Genesis Philanthropy Group in the former Soviet Union. Roman Spektor, an Adviser to the EAJC Secretary General welcomed the participants of the conference on behalf of the Congress. The opening ceremony was led by Victoria Mochalova, Director of "Sefer", member of the EAJC General Council.
The conference brought together dozens of researchers from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Latvia, Israel, USA and Germany. The program includes plenary and breakout sessions, "round tables", presentations of scientific publications on Jewish studies, published over the past year. The program covers a wide range of topics, including biblical and Talmudic studies, different periods of Jewish history, Jewish-Christian relations, history of modern Israel, languages, literature, art, ethnology, demography. Chlenov participated in meetings of "Sefer" Academic Council and gave lectures "The experience of the typology of the Jewish communities in the modern world" and "Jews in Indonesia."