We have exchanged phone numbers, said good bye to each other and will be waiting for the next meeting! We have spent together two days. It was a time of fruitful work, interesting trainings, and of course, we had a lot of fun together. Soon we will have a meeting with our elder leaders - Directors of Heseds and Jewish Community Centers of Kazakhstan.

This is not the first Young People Forum organized by Mistva Association and held in Almaty. Many issues were discussed at the Forum, and the most important of them - the role of young people in the community, ways of expressing yourself, and publicizing your community in the region.

There were very interesting meetings with the Forum guests - Leonid Gurevich, Sociologist Professor, and Roman Spektor, one of the originators of the Eurasian Jewish Congress. We learned how everything began - it was a difficult process but the Congress turned into a strong organization and has been active for 20 years already.

How to preserve traditions, religion and self identification - all these issues were discussed with our irreplaceable teacher Alexander Abramovich, who once again made an amazing presentation of his research findings.

There was an interesting speech made by Representative of Sohnut Agency in Kazakhstan Alexandra Briskin. We learned how Israel lives in the conditions of the economic crisis, how this small but strong country makes its livings.

Two days passed very quickly. What did the Forum show us? Why we will remember it? Every participant has his/her own answers to these questions. We spent every spare minute discussing important issues. There are many goals we should achieve in cooperation. Our Association has great potential, young leaders, who can do it. For many of us being Jewish means not just to belong to the ethnical group, but it is a special state of spirit, great desire to work and preserve traditions of our ancestors. The future of the Jewish Community is on our hands!

Natalya Reshetnyak