On March 26, 2017 the academic director of World Jewish Congress International Yiddish Center, Dr. Mordechay Yushkovsky provided a lecture "Odessa and Yiddish literature" to the group of 65 persons from Israel who were taking part in the program "Jewish weekend in Odessa", organized by the "Lion travel" agency.
The lecture was dedicated to the 100th yortsayt (anniversary of death) of the first classic of Yiddish literature Mendele Moykher-Sforim.
Its goal was to familiarize the public, who is not much aware about both the Jewish history of Odessa and the Yiddish culture, with extremely rich and colorful role of that city in the Jewish life throughout the centuries.