Kazakh delegation meets prominent Jewish groups and leaders in the US, takes part in Jewish Film Festival

They met with Senior Director for the United States for Russia and Eurasia National Security Council Celeste Wallander, and with the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia and former ambassador Richard Hoagland. They discussed their experience of promoting inter-religious and inter-ethnic harmony in Kazakhstan. The Kazakh delegation also met Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings who praised Kazakhstan's economic progress and Kazakhstan's 2010 chairmanship of the OSCE.The delegation held a meeting with Jewish American Leaders from the National Coalition to support Eurasian Jews, whose president "Mitzvah" A. Baron praised Kazakhstan's policy of tolerance and religious diversity.

The delegation's visit featured attendance at the screening of the Kazakh film "A Gift to Stalin" at the Washington Jewish Film Festival on Sept 9. The film takes place in 1949 and is about a 9-year-old boy who escapes from a train transporting Jewish refugees from Moscow to Kazakhstan. The American audience found the film moving and informative. Through the film, they appreciated ethnic and religious diversity in Kazakhstan and understood why the culture of tolerance, mutual respect and hospitality is very strong in the Kazakh society today, the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.