Siberian Federal University

As a part of her visit Mrs Bar-Josef gave a public lecture on how the Russian literature influenced contemporary Hebrew literature. According to Mrs Bar-Josef, It was not the first time she spoke to Russian students but this time it was a pleasant experience: «I have been teaching for many years and I can tell the difference between a polite interest and sincere feelings. This time I saw many attentive eyes!».

According to the researcher, Hebrew literature had experienced the influence of the Russian literature until mid-twentieth century. It was the classic Russian literature with its apocalyptic ideas that formed the contemporary Israeli culture. Later, the influence was weaker, mainly, because Russian writers who left for Israel wrote in Russian. Professor Bar-Josef's favourite writer is Anton Chekhov.

According to the First Secretary of the Embassy of Israel to the Russian Federation Mrs Iris Zwaig, she was surprised by the dynamics of SibFU's development. It has significantly changed since she was here a year ago. Israeli Cultural Centre is prepared to work on joint projects so that students could know Israeli culture and understand that Israel is not just 'religion and war'.

Inviting visiting professors is a good method. «But modern technologies let us solve these problems quickly and with fewer expenses. We hope that we could enhance our collaboration and we could become intermediaries in building connections with Israeli universities including technological universities», — Mrs Iris Zwaig said.