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Operation Menashe begins this week! Next aliyah flight lands Thursday
The Bnei Menashe are coming home – and soon. The first flight of this latest group of Bnei Menashe lands this Thursday. Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund flew to India this week to accompany the 40 Bnei Menashe men, women and children, all from the...
Operation Menashe: Meet Harel Kingbol, making aliyah from Mizoram
For nearly 20 years, Harel Kingbol has dreamt of making aliyah to Israel so that his children “never face the same trouble and suffering as I did growing up,” he says. For Kingbol, the suffering started when he was 9-years-old: that’s when he had his...
Bnei Menashe celebrate new Shavei Israel prayer books in India
As the Lufthansa jet landed in Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta), India, the ground crew unloading some four tons of boxes had no idea of the value of their contents; they seemed like the kind of ordinary shipment unpacked every day in this busy Indian...
Operation Menashe: Meet Azriel Hmar, making aliyah from Mizoram
As Shavei Israel prepares for "Operation Menashe," we introduce you to Azriel Hmar and his family from Mizoram. Azriel has been helping Shavei Israel prepare other Bnei Menashe to make aliyah, but he's had to wait seven years for the day when he too could...
Operation Menashe: Meet Meir Phaltual, making aliyah from Mizoram
Living an observant Jewish life in India is never easy, even today, but for Meir Phaltual and his family growing up, it was particularly difficult. One of nine siblings, he says that his fellow villagers “disliked us and insulted us because of our religious beliefs.”...
Pictures from candle-lighting in Palermo’s infamous Steri prison
We have one final batch of photos from Shavei Israel’s Hanukah celebrations this year: the return of light to the infamous Steri prison in Palermo, Sicily, where Shavei Israel’s emissary to the Bnei Anousim in southern Italy and Sicily, Rabbi Pinchas Punturello, led a candle-lighting...
Vysoky’s Subbotnik Jews to get first synagogue in nearly 100 years
The Subbotnik Jewish community in Vysoky, Russia, is getting its first new synagogue in nearly 100 years. Together with the Russian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Community of Voronezh, Shavei Israel earlier this year purchased an old private home in the center of the village...
Historic Hanukkah Ceremony at Inquisition Prison
A Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony was held Wednesday at the infamous Steri prison in Palermo, Sicily, which served as a headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition between 1601 and 1782. The ceremony – the first of its kind – was headed by Shavei Israel's emissary to southern...
Pictures from 2013 Hanukah celebrations
Last week, we told you about the plans our emissaries had in store for Shavei Israel Hanukah celebrations around the world. Now we have pictures. Here are some selections from Belmonte, Portugal; Albacete, Spain; Cartagena, Colombia; Catania, Italy; Krakow and Katowice, Poland; Kaifeng, China; and...