For Shavuot, Shavei is Zoom(ing) around the world
While the world seemed to grow larger and more distant with the coronavirus pandemic and ‘social distancing’, technology has helped to bring people closer again. Shavei Israel has been taking advantage of technologies such as Zoom to bring programming to communities around the world. Both to support the lost and hidden Jewish people, and to teach others about those same people.
Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund gave a Zoom class on Tuesday about the meaning of the Shavuot festival to a dozen Igbo emerging-Jewish communities in Nigeria. The class was eagerly awaited by members of the Nigerian Jewish Youth Movement and was well-received. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the communities, which are spread around Nigeria. have not been able to meet or see each other and this was a great opportunity for them to ‘get together.’ The participants said the program was just perfect.
On another side of the world a group of students in Melbourne, Australia, gave their attention via Zoom to Laura Ben-David, Shavei’s Director of Marketing & New Media. The group was participating in a ‘Tikkun Leil Shavuot’ for an organization called Zooz which provides meaningful engagement with Judaism, Israel and the community for university-aged students, and the program was about the lost tribe of Bnei Menashe .
In addition to numerous ongoing online programs in Spanish specifically for Bnei Anousim of South America, Michael Freund will be delivering a Shavuot program via Zoom to the hidden Jews in Addis Ababa.
We may not be getting out much, but we’re doing our best to be everywhere we can.
Would you like to bring amazing content to your community or synagogue? Contact us at office@shavei.org.
