Shabbaton for Bnei Anousim held in southern Italian town of Brindisi
Brindisi Shabbaton participants
Shavei Israel’s emissary to southern Italy and Sicily, Rabbi Pinchas Punturello , recently organized a weekend Shabbaton for Bnei Anousim in the area. Some 20 people gathered in the town of Brindisi, the capital of the province of the same name. Participants spent the weekend studying, praying and singing together.
Rabbi Punturello organizes regular weekend seminars for the community every month or so. The next will be a Shabbaton for Jews in Calabria.
The Bnei Anousim are Jews whose ancestors were forcibly converted to Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries and whom historians often refer to by the derogatory term Marranos. Rabbi Punturello is the first rabbi ever appointed to work specifically with the Bnei Anousim of southern Italy and Sicily.
Here are a few more pictures from the Havdalah ceremony that took place at the end of Shabbat.
