The VI Central-Asian Jewish International Festival of the Children and Youth Creativity organized under the support of the Joint Committee, Jewish Congress of Kazakhstan and Mitsva Association was a great success. The Festival took place in Karagandy on July 2-5 with the main topic "Travel Across Israel". The Jewish Community of Pavlodar is deeply grateful to the management of the Aluminum plant for providing transportation means for the festival participants.

The Festival opening was held at the stage of Samal Resort. Delegates demonstrated the team spirit by the slogan "We Are a Team". On the second day, the festival participants showed their performances.

Our dancing group "Mazal" performed a cheerful "Hasidskiy" dance. Singing group "Avnavim" including Liza Daerbayeva, Kseniya Petrova, Polina Engel, which is supervised by Tatyana Slivinskaya, sang songs "Rikud Romanty", "Halleluiah", "Sisu Vesimha". Kseniya Petrova and Polina Engel sang in duet the song "Rega". Denis Karapusov was on stage for the first time, all together with the girls they performed the song "Jack". The songs "Halleluiah" and "Rega" were included into the Gala Concert.

The children singing group "Tapuah" participated in the Festival for the first time. David Vladovskiy, Natasha Narynskaya, and Mariya Smagulova sang two songs "Karandashi" and "Tuva".

On the third day of the Festival, the Gala Concert took place on the stage of the Drama Theater named after Stanislavskiy. The festival participants were demonstrating the best performances for three hours. It was a celebration of creativity, smiles, laughter, and pride for our People!

Festival participants share their impressions:

Polina Engel, "We have met with our old friends and found new ones. It was interesting to see performances of other children. We all wish the Festival to be held every year."

Alexander Bryanskiy, " Freilehe Kinder Festival is a place of positive emotions. We got self confidence and the understanding of how valuable friendship is. Speaking about the performances, they were all very different but memorable. It was a very nice atmosphere, as if we were one family. I would like this Festival never end."

Sergey Ahmetzyanov, "Freilehe Kinder Festival was a great success! It was my second festival. We were going in the bus for 12 hours - it is a very long way. I made new friends. Three days passed quickly. I hope that the next year I will go again to the VII Freilehe Kinder Festival."

Ilya Shilman, "The Festival ended. When we sat into the bus, I was swept with memories: our arrival, old friends, new impressions and feeling at home, then new friends, interesting performances. But it is time to leave already… I only hope that next year it will happen all over again."

Liza Daerbayeva, "This is my sixth festival. I am very glad we have such a festival where Jewish children of Kazakhstan can come together. This year we even had guests from Nizhniy Tagil. We thank the festival organizers and our supervisor Tatyana Semenovna Slivinskaya." Valeriya Gruzman, "This is my second festival. There were very bright and memorable performances. We all became close friends. We met new interesting people. It is great to see that every year there are more and more festival participants. I thank our organizers and supervisors."

Kseniya Petrova, "This Festival was one of the best for me regardless of the fact that we left early. I met my old friends and made new ones! I was delighted to see other guys performing on stage. I remember dances performed by the guys from Nizhniy Tagil and Almaty, I liked the film by Karaganda team. It was interesting to see the rehearsals before the festival. The living conditions were very good, it also added to my good mood. Thank you very much! I am very grateful to our supervisor Tatyana Semenovna Slivinskaya."

It is the middle of the school holidays but in the Day Center of Hesed Rahel there is a lot of work being done. Children come to hobby groups, prepare for holidays, and organize different events. At the beginning of the summer, they were getting ready for the VI Freilehe Kinder Festival. Then, the most active 12 guys went to Bayanaul Resort. They swam in the Zhasybay Lake, did hiking in the mountings, and had many games and competitions. They had a great time together! There is not much time left till the end of the summer but we have organized a healthy camp for our kids at Hesed Rahel including swimming pool, oxygen cocktails, and games outside.

Irina Tveritneva