It’s called “Study of Torah Street” in Chinese and for hundreds of years was the center of Jewish life in the ancient Chinese capital of Kaifeng. But since the 1850s, when the synagogue was shuttered and the last rabbi passed away, the “Study of Torah...
Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund will be speaking this Thursday, November 7, 2013, at Touro College and University in New York. If you're in town, click here to view more details....
They have been Italian for generations but alongside Catholic roots, Jewish roots are being revealed, as well as a 500-year-old Torah scroll and a Shema Yisrael prayer found by chance in a basement. What makes hundreds of people dig into their lives? --------- The phenomenon of Anousim, Jews forced to...
The Jewish holiday of Sukkot begins this Wednesday night and we have a few pictures to mark the festivities. For the past four years, the Jewish community of Katowice, Poland, has built a sukka (a temporary "hut" used during the week-long holiday) in the courtyard...
[caption id="attachment_12003" align="alignleft" width="560"] Eggplant lasagna[/caption] Throughout history, entire communities of Jews became "lost" through forced conversions or gradual assimilation. However, in many cases their descendants passed down (more or less secretly) special rules, rituals, names or, most deliciously, recipes, that distinguished them from the surrounding...
The Isaac Cardoso Center for Jewish Interpretation in Trancoso, Portugal, was formally dedicated this weekend with a special "guest" - a new Torah scroll, the first to make its home in Trancoso in nearly 500 years. More than 60 people attended the dedication, including the...
When Gidon Elazar finished his mandatory military service, like so many other Israelis he had a hankering for travel. Setting his sights on the Far East, he spent much of his time in China. So began a decade-long fascination, one that continues today and that...
Shavei Israel's "Roots" email newsletter has reached an important milestone - its hundredth publication since we started more than three years ago. To celebrate, we're taking a look back at some of the articles you told us were the most significant or meaningful stories we've...
Two weeks ago, we told you about Jerusalem residents Danby and Dr. Marvin Meital who, with Shavei Israel’s help, organized the first Passover Seder in centuries on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Well, the article went viral. The result: participation in the Meital's unique Seder...
[caption id="attachment_10979" align="alignleft" width="300"] Seder in Krakow March 24 (photo credit: Nissan Tzur)[/caption] KRAKOW – Seventy years after most of Polish Jewry died in the Holocaust, it seems that Jewish life in Poland is experiencing a revival. More than 150 people gathered at the Jewish Community Center...
