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I am a 37-year-old mother and I am part of the Jewish Community of San Nicandro. Since my childhood, I have grown up learning about Judaism and the Torah, which have shaped and formed me throughout my life. Through this, I have developed a very strong love for G-d. While the environment around us is very different from the way in which we lead our lives, nonetheless I have found the inner strength to remain firm in my beliefs. One of the most important things was that I had the support of people who knew to guide me along the right path. I am referring, of course, to the elders of our community. Since we are young, we represent the fruit of their efforts, which they planted long ago and which have now grown strong and beautiful. I thank G-d that this happened to us.I am grateful to the elders of the community, many of whom, sadly, have now begun to pass away. They are like candles that have begun to extinguish.

Since I was a young girl my mother and grandfather constantly reminded me of my Jewish identity. They told me that one day we would be able to return to the Land of Israel, the land G-d gave to us. However, I had little knowledge...

From Jin Jin to Yecholiya, has been a long and arduous process. It is something that I, as well as all Kaifeng Jews, have been dreaming of. When I was a little girl my father told me that I am a Jew, and that one...

When I came to Israel in 2006, with the help of Shavei Israel, and went through the conversion program at Bat Ayin, it was the first time I was touched by Judaism. When I was a kid, growing up in Kaifeng, my father and grandmother...

My name is Amos Sektak. I am 25 years old and made Aliya to Israel in 2000 from Manipur State, India. As a child, I went through many difficulties, many humiliations and suffered many “jokes” made by my “friends.” They always called us the “Saturday people” or the “circumcised ones,” and laughed at our religion. Even in school there were all sorts of difficulties, socially as well as requiring us to take our examinations or do our turn of duty on the Sabbath day. My life's dream was to come on Aliya to Israel, to live in a Jewish state and feel like I belonged and not different. With God's help as well as with Shavei Israel's, I came on Aliya to Israel. My dream became a reality. I spent one and a half years in a yeshiva in Jerusalem and felt that I was simply at home. Nevertheless, mixed in with my happiness was the sadness that my family remained in India.
Hello! My name is Sonia… The name my parents gave me at birth and I don’t know why! People love to ask me why… “Because Sonia is a Russian name!” I didn’t know how to answer them except to say that in Indian, the name means “My dear”! I came on Aliya on August 10, 1999 together with my family, coming directly to Kiryat Arba, because until then my eldest sister lived there ever since making Aliya in 1993. She married in Israel, started a family and lives happily with her husband and three children! So, we stayed by her for a half year. During this time, we studied Hebrew at the Kiryat Arba Community Center. After about four months, I was enrolled at the Kiryat Arba Ulpanah for Girls. I began studies in 8th grade. This was a year I shall never forget for the rest of my life, due to problems with the Hebrew language. So, I was so quiet, never uttering a word and never wrote anything.

My name is Liron Menelon. I arrived in Israel on February 11, 2000 and did not know any Hebrew. I have two uncles in Kiryat Arba where I also lived. My Hebrew I learned in an Ulpan. Afterwards I went to live with my uncles. I began...

Miquel Segura Bnei AnousimI cannot say how old I was when I noticed that I was different from all the other children about me. In my home, as in all the Xueta homes, it was forbidden to speak about it, hushed not to mention it. Anyway, I recall a quaver of mystery, something shameful and hidden that popped up here and there during conversations:  Silences, movements, cut-off words, a tension unknown in our otherwise apparently happy lives. My father, a merchant, curious and optimistic, dragged along his entire life some indefinite fear. Of course, I could not discern it until in his old age he uncovered weaknesses that I hadn’t known of before. Today I am sure that his identity as a Xueta and his mother’s absence (she died when he was a child), were the two singular causes that cast a pall upon his life.
Nissan Ben Avraham is the name of a Rabbi who was born in Palma, where he was baptized as is the custom in every good “Apostolic and Roman Catholic” home, and given the name Nicolas Aguilo. He came on Aliya 26 years ago because “if after 600 years I could not overcome the stigma of my being a Jew, why shouldn’t I be a Jew?” Yesterday, after an absence of 12 years , Nissan Ben Avraham came face to face with his city of birth to relate his personal story:  From Palma to Israel, at a one-day seminar organized by Shavei Israel on the components of the Chueta’s identity and their historical link with the Jewish people. “I was about ten years old when the children at school cursed me for being a Xueta. I then discovered that to be a Xueta was something awful even though I did not succeed in understanding why. I did not know if the meaning of that word was being a Jew or not. I did not understand the meaning of the Anous nor did I absorb the reaction of others to this phenomenon,” he explained.
Rabbi Shlomo Zelig Avrasin has been appointed as the new emissary of the Shavei Israel organization to the Subbotnik Jews of Russia. His mission, which will begin during Hanukkah, will focus primarily on the community of Vysoky in southern Russia and will include teaching Hebrew and Judaism, organizing prayer services and conducting a range of diverse educational activities for the Subbotnik Jewish youth.  
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