Roman Polonsky, JAFI director of the Jewish Agency for Israel's Russian Speaking Jewry Unit, visited the Jewish community of Almaty in a working visit. The visit included the Rimon community center, the Chesed Polina center, the publishers of the Davar newsletter, and the office of the Mitzvah association. The JAFI representative met with the head of the Jewish community of Kazakhstan, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Presidium member Alexander Baron and Chesed director Inessa Chugainova. Matters of joint projects with JAFI were discussed at the meeting.

Alexander Baron spoke about how Jews were being relocated to Kazakhstan since the early 20th century, noting particulary the stories of those who were evacuated and refugees during World War II. Baron stressed that the Mitzvah association is currently most prominent in studying the evacuation and refugees, as well as the history of Jews of Central Asia and Western Siberia, and presented the guest with a collection of articles titled “History. Memory. People,” which was published by the association after the VII International history conference on these topics.

Polonsky noted that he thinks highly of the community groups that he saw, and he spoke about the work of his own department: “One of our top priorities is to strengthen Jewish self-identification. We’re talking about feeling oneself as part of the Jewish people and of the pride this should evoke. A connection with Israel is also a boon for self-identification, and today that doesn’t necessarily mean aliyah. It was a pleasure for me to visit your exhibition of children’s drawings “Jerusalem throughout the ages.” This is one such project for strengthening ties with Israel.”

Polonsky also noted that it is possible to strengthen the ties between the Jewish community of Kazakhstan and JAFI, since they have many similar projects.