"How is life in Israel and what drives it?" was the main question of those attending the conference with the famous authors and journalists Mark Kotliarsky and Iosef Shagal. The conference took place on 4 May 2008 in the Jewish Community Centre "Rimon" as a part of programme called "Bridges Between Cultures." This new programme was initiated jointly by Israeli and Kazakhstan cultural leaders and was commenced at the 60th anniversary of Israel.

  The conversation was full of traditional Jewish humour. The honorary guests immediately announced that modern Israeil is a country of large democracy. "It occurs when there are two Jews, three opinions and four parties," they joked.

  "But seriously, the program for the development of Israel was meticulously made by the members of parliament, including myself. Every question was studied in detail," said Iosef Shagal. "For example, two years after the Lebanese war, Israeli army "Tsahal" was fully re-equipped. This was done under the supervision of our elected members."

  Today the yearly budget of the country is $80 billion. $35 billion is spent on defence. Education is on the second place and takes $10 billion of the budget.

  Israelis are proud of their medical system and service. The citizens pay only 180 Shekel per month in insurance. This social benefit allows high quality of medical services, including diagnosis, prevention, operations and treatment. The elderly have an opportunity to live in retirement villages and to receive good income and quality food. Israel can afford this by selling its inventions in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and medical technology to the world.

  The guests spoke for two hours about the modern Israel, its life, culture, science and, of course, literature. Plentiful questions from the audience were answered in detail by the guests, who provided beautiful descriptions of scientific and cultural achievements of Israelis.

  At the end of the conference the authors shared thoughts about their own works. "Why did you decide to write the book ‘Jewish people and sex’?" Mark Kotliarsky was asked by the audience.

  "This book was born by an accident," he replied. "In the introduction it explains that in Soviet Union two topics were banned: the Jewish people and sex. As a result of ignorance and absence of awareness there are many myths and dogmas about the subjects, especially when both subjects coexist. We made it a goal to write a book about the subjects in a simple language using sources unavailable to the Russian readers."

  The book "Jewish People and Sex" received a colossal amount of positive responses. It is still in the top ten of the books of its class.

  Kotliarskiy, when asked what his plans were, stated that in the end of May a new book, dedicated to the Israeli Tribes will be released. It will be called, "Jewish Atlantida. The Mystery of the Lost Tribes".

  Joseph Shagal shared how he wrote his book "KGB in Tuxidos". "This is a completely fictional book," he said, "I never knew Andropov. But in 2000 I read many documentary studies about his life. From those sources I found out that he loved his fruit."

  The author wrote the book at a rate of one chapter per week and published it in the "Peak Hour" journal. Later many readers asked for a full edition of the book and the author had to, in his words, "tie up all the loose ends." The book was born. Shagal has no intention in continuing to write about the special purpose Russian forces.

  Mark Kotliarskiy and Iosef Shagal will make cultural bridges in two more cities of Kazakhstan: in Astana and Ust-Kamenogorsk, after which they will return to Israel.

Anna Naumova