May was a very busy month in the Wroclaw Jewish community. Rabbi Yitzhak Rapoport participated in the Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony at the Lamsdorf concentration camp. Also celebrations were held for Israel’s 63rd Independence Day organized by Bente Kahan Foundation with such activities as learning the Hebrew...
An evening of learning with Ner Le’Elef, in partnership with Shavei Israel in Krakow. Were young people from across Krakow came together to discuss Jewish history, culture and religion in Poland. [nggallery id=71] El programa de Ner La Elef en Cracovia, auspiciado por Shavei Israel, sigue teniendo éxito y atrayendo...
The Krakow Jewish community celebrated Lag bomer with a full day of fun. Starting with an upsherin, a haircut for a 3 year old boy followed by a boat tour of the city and concluded with a festive lunch. [nggallery id=70]La comunidad judía de Cracovia festejó...
Italian concert pianist Miriam Sangiorgio only learned of her Jewish roots in a dramatic revelation in her father's dying days. 
Miriam Pena of Peru dreamed of seeing the desert. But when she arrived in Israel, her heart told her she was part of the Jewish people.
What all three of these brave women have in common is that they are Bnei Anousim (people whose ancestors were compelled to convert to Catholicism more than five centuries ago at the time of the Spanish Inquisition) and that they are studying to re-engage the heritage they nearly lost at Shavei Israel's Spanish-language Machon Miriam Jewish Institute for Return and Conversion in Jerusalem.
The Jewish community in Krakow under the auspices of Rabbi Boaz Pash, emissary of Shavei Israel, celebrated Israel's 63rd birthday. Here are some pictures from the festivities. [nggallery id=69] La comunidad judía de Cracovia, de la cual se encuentra a cargo el emisario de Shavei Israel, el Rabino...
There are approximately 1,000 people with alleged Jewish roots in Timbuktu, Mali. They arrived in the 14th century fleeing persecution in Spain, and migrated south to the Timbuktu area, at that time part of the Songhai Empire. Among them was the Kehath (Ka'ti) family, descended...
As with immigrant communities everywhere, the 1,700 Bnei Menashe who have been privileged to make aliyah to Israel are invariably in need of social services. These include help with finding a job, choosing a school for their children, learning a new language, and navigating the unfamiliar Israeli bureaucracy. While there are Israeli social workers who work with the Bnei Menashe – Jews living in northeastern India who are descended from one of the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel – none come from the community itself or speak its native languages of Mizo and Kuki.
That’s where Itzkhak Colney comes in. Colney is currently training to become the first Bnei Menashe social worker, thanks to a scholarship from Shavei Israel. Together with his sister Esther and a third Bnei Menashe named Sonia Manlun, Colney is studying at the Safed Academic College in Israel’s northern Galilee.
It’s taken over 300 years but, for the first time in history, a Spanish regional government has condemned the atrocities perpetrated by the Inquisition against Bnei Anousim (Jews who were compelled to convert to Catholicism and whom historians refer to by the derogatory term Marranos).
This unprecedented event, which took place in the Spanish city of Palma de Mallorca last month, came as the result of a meeting earlier this year between Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund and a top aide to Frances Antich Oliver, president of Spain’s Balearic Islands. At the meeting, which was also attended by Rabbi Yossi Wallis, head of the Arachim organization, Freund asked Oliver to hold a public ceremony and express regret for the dark chapters of the past; the president acceded to the request.
[caption id="attachment_6206" align="alignright" width="270" caption="The Yu Aw synagogue in Afghanistan's Herat quarter"][/caption] In addition to the historic Jewish roots of the Pathans (Pashtuns) described elsewhere on the Shavei Israel site, there is also speculation that the Afghan Royal Family has its roots in the tribe of...
Praga, República Checa Doble Cántico al Shabat Como hemos dicho, la leyenda más famosa del Beit Hakneset Altnoishul es la leyenda del golem de Praga. De acuerdo a la leyenda el Maharal creó al golem a la orilla del río Volta, una noche de primavera...
