On the 18th of March friends, colleagues, neighbours and admirers of wonderful prose writer Maurice Simashko came to Hesed Polina to celebrate his birthday. Maurice Davidovich used to come here with great pleasure. The Jewish Library prepared a poster with photos and press releases, a large wall calendar and a thematic selection of books. The president of the Association "Mitsva" Alexander Baron welcomed the audience and the library director Galina Korobkina presented the honourable guests.

The event started with the video of the writer, and it can be said that the meeting was opened by Maurice Davidovich himself. The voice of the writer and his charisma set the atmosphere for the entire assembly.

Ludmila Eniseeva- Warsawskaya, a writer, journalist, and a great follower of Simashko’s talent hosted the evening. Ludmila Filippovna read out the fragments of autobiographical prose with great warmth, and everyone present could experience the magic of the bright, descriptive word of the writer.

Adolf Artsyshevsky, our friend and a famous poet and writer, recollected how he, a prospective journalist, came to the editorial board of "Expanse" magazine and met there already prominent Simashko. He also talked about personal qualities of Maurice Davidovich. A chief researcher of the Institute of Literature and Art named after M. Auezov Svetlana Ananyeva presented the Jewish Library with an issue of the journal "Keruen" containing her article and spoke about working with Maurice Davidovch. Svetlana remembered how much his extensive erudition, immense life experience and remarkable gift of the story-teller were admired by all his colleagues.

Leonid Girsh, a long-time friend of Maurice Davidovich, recalled their first meeting in the Turkmen city of Mari. He talked about their friendship, which lasted for more than forty years; about the difficulties of publications and the premiere of the first play of the writer "In the Farthest South". Leonid Girsh donated a special release of the journal "Bibliophile" exclusively dedicated to the remembrance of Maurice Davidovich to the Jewish library.

Lenina Matlina talked about working together with Maurice Simashko at the History Department of the University; the neighbour of the writer Emiliya Slivko shared her memories, and volunteer Svetlana Nezhinskaya proposed to name Republican Jewish library after M. Simashko.

"Reminiscence is a kind of encounter", said eastern philosopher Khamil Dzhubran. Over fifty guests of Hesed "Polina" once again met Maurice Simashko with great pleasure.

Ludmila Starodubova