The article is devoted to the research of Jewish student subculture at the Psychoneural Institute at the beginning of the 20th century. The institute was creation of scientist V.M. Bekhterev and became a «window» to the capital of the Russian Empire for the Jewish students who had come from traditional families of the Pale of settlement. The institute did not apply percent norm of attending of Jewish entrants, therefore it became attractive for Jewish youth. Despite that the process of adaptation was one of the steps on their way to success. Motives of choice of the Jewish students to enter the Psychoneural institute are the special interest for the research: many students by the moment of entering the institute have had already diploma on the higher education or the right to live beyond the Pale. Activity of hobby groups, touched «Jewish» topics in the science and social life, witnessed about active inner life of the Jewish students of the institute. Split inside of Jewish student environment on some problems of social life let discover mood of the Jewish youth of the capital. The base for the research are materials of the institute - student personal records. They represent birth, motives of the entering the institute, level of education; Russian and Jewish periodicals which shed light on inner life of the students and memoirs of professors and graduates of the institute.