This issue of the magazine includes:

• Interview: Anatoly Kotov

There are people who are so devoted to the characters of their favorite books that they establish literary character museums. Such museums exist all over the world: Sherlock Holmes Museum in London, Soldier Švejk Museum in Prague, Baron Munchausen Museum in Germany... The magazine presents Anatoly Kotov, founder of the St. Petersburg museum dedicated to Ostap Bender, a character from two famous satirical novels by Soviet writers Ilya Ilf and Eugeny Petrov.

• Review: Five Issues of Jews of Belarus. History and Culture Magazine

Judaica as a scientific discipline did not exist in the Soviet Union. Judaica in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine today is therefore a fledgling field of study. Three years ago a new Jewish academic magazine was started in Minsk, now having published five issues—enough material to analyze the current status of Byelorussian Judaica.

• Synopses: Three New Books

The magazine presents a brief review of the new album Treasures of Jewish Culture in Ukraine recently published in Kiev in Ukrainian, English, and Hebrew, as well as information about two books on local Jewish history published in Vinnitsa and Birobidzhan.

• Looking through Russian Literary Magazines: Novels and Articles of Jewish Interest

Nalchik's Jewish Cultural Center "Tovushi" was established in 1991. The Center has several research and publishing projects on the history and ethnography of Mountain Jews of the Northern Caucasus, as well as running educational, cultural, and welfare programs. The article is followed by a complete bibliography of the Center's publications.

• Jewish Calendar of Significant Dates: January–February 2001