Today Director of the Translation Centre under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Republic (AzTC) Afag Masud met with Israeli Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Azerbaijan Rafael Harpaz. The meeting focused on further enhancement of literary and cultural relationships, and called for closer cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel. AzTC Director Masud underscored the role of translation as an area bettering the language, also calling it a serious art phenomenon. She delivered a strong message of support for the translation and publication of Yiddish literary examples in Azerbaijan. 
“Our Translation Centre pays special attention to Yiddish literature, in particular those works by writers of Jewish origin, featuring Israel’s literary examples in our publications. Among them are playwright and short story writer Isaac Babel’s Tales of Odessa, playwright Arthur Miller’s plays, etc. Our plan for next year also includes the translation from Hebrew and publication of Sholem Aleichem, one of the preeminent classical writers of modern Yiddish literature,” Afag Masud said. And she touched upon the translation of the Torah from the original language and underlined close cooperation with Israeli specialists in this area.  
In turn, Ambassador Harpaz praised the creation of the Translation Centre, expressing hope that it will make significant contributions to building of inter-literary and multinational bridges. “Compared to other countries, Israel enjoys stronger ties with Azerbaijan which are important for both countries. It would be difficult to conjure up a more than our economic cooperation, our stance on Karabakh question than to illustrate … Today about 70,000 Azerbaijani Jews have immigrated to Israel, where they live and work. They speak fluent Azerbaijani, and by no means forget this language and Baku. In spite of geographical remoteness, cultural and spiritual links have always paved the way for the enhancement of Israeli –Azerbaijani relationship. We are eager to boost both economic and cultural cooperation,” the Israeli diplomat concluded.     
The parts later stressed AzTC’s participation in cultural events to be held in Israel and agreed on the implementation of joint projects between the Embassy and AzTC in terms of conducting inter-literary exchanges.

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