On September 25 – 27, 2017 an educational seminar for leaders of Jewish communities of 25 cities of Russia and Belarus took place in Izmailovo hotel in Moscow.

The event was held by the Russian section of the Joint Distribution Committee (USA). Its main topic was the shtetl as a traditional form of Jewish life in Eastern Europe.

The academical director of the International Yiddish Center at the World Jewish Congress, Dr. Mordechay Yushkovsky, delivered three lectures: "Yiddish culture as an encyclopaedia of life in the shtetl"; "Leaving a shtetl for a big city and its reflection in Yiddish literature"; and "Conflicts and dilemmas in Jewish families in the light of Yiddish literature".

Representatives of Moscow, Bryansk, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Minsk, Bobruisk and other cities took a great interest in this subject. Many of them requested to hold similar events in their communities in order to closer familiarize their members with Yiddish culture.