El Salvador Shabbaton unites Bnei Anousim communities
As the banquet hall in San Salvador filled up, it was not clear who was more excited – the 250 Bnei Anousim who had come from all over El Salvador to celebrate Shabbat together, or their guest speakers for the weekend, Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund and Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, who had flown from Israel to be with the community for this special Shabbaton.
The long weekend began Thursday afternoon at the Beit Israel synagogue in San Salvador with a meeting arranged so that Freund and Rabbi Birnbaum could get to know the leaders of the four main Bnei Anousim communities in the country. On Friday, after morning prayers, the group set off for the community of Armenia, about an hour’s ride by car outside the capital. Matias Dileva, an emissary for the Jewish Agency, participated as well.
Upon their return, the group toured the Beit Israel facility, in particular, the community’s first (and only) kosher mikveh (ritual bath), which was dedicated in December 2013 during Hanukah in the presence of the Israeli ambassador to El Salvador. (We wrote about it here.)
We could try to describe the atmosphere on Shabbat, but that would barely capture the energy of 250 Latin American Jews singing at full volume, banging on the tables in joy and excitement. Instead, watch these two videos (not taken on Shabbat of course, but you get the idea).
There were plenty of classes and talks over the course of the Shabbaton. In addition to Freund and Rabbi Birnbaum, Rabbi Isaac Aboud, Shavei Israel’s emissary to the community, flew in from his home base in Mexico City to attend and speak. Perhaps most inspirational, reports Eliyahu Franco, president of Beit Israel and the head of FESOSAL, El Salvador’s federation for Bnei Anousim, were the explanations from the Jewish Agency’s Dileva, who explained the process of aliyah – immigration to Israel.
“The visit of Rabbi Birnbaum and Michael Freund was a true injection of hope for the Bnei Anousim of El Salvador,” Franco says.
We have pictures from the Shabbaton below. The full schedule for the weekend is here. The Israel Hayom newspaper wrote about the Shabbaton here.
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