On May 18-21, 2017 the World Jewish Congress International Yiddish Center in cooperation with American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee conducted in Odessa, Ukraine a mini-course in Yiddish literature for teachers of informal Jewish education from different countries of the CIS.

The WJC YC representative, the head of Kiev Institute for Jewish Studies Julia Smilyanskaya delivered three lectures about the life of East European Jews in towns and shtetls and its reflection in Yiddish literature.

The subjects of the lectures were: "From Kasrilovka to Yehupetz with Sholom Aleichem"; "Tuneyadovka, Tetiyev, Glupsk in Mendele Moycher Sforim's works. Dreams and reality of the shtetl"; "From Skvira to Odessa with Ahad Ha'am (Asher Ginzberg) and other writers".

High educational level of the participants enabled to reveal wide range of issues related to Yiddish culture. The lecturer analyzed pathway of Jewish writers from traditional Hasidic shtetls to Odessa and to Eretz-Israel. Historical formation of press and theater in Yiddish have been reviewed, too, which aroused major interest among the audience.