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The New York Times SHAVEI SHOMRON, West Bank, Dec. 16 — Sharon Palian and his fellow immigrants from India are still struggling with the Hebrew language and remain partial to homemade kosher curry rather than Israeli cuisine. But the 71 immigrants, who arrived in June with the firm conviction that they were descended from one of the biblical lost tribes of Israel, feel they have completed a spiritual homecoming.
The Jerusalem Post - Winter Supplement    When Dr. Larry Rubin of Jerusalem stood in front of the congregation on Shabbat Lech Lecha to say the birkat hakohanim (blessing of the priests), many of his fellow worshippers had tears in their eyes. The reason for these tears was a profound one: Larry Rubin was the first kohen to bless this community of Jews in 500 years. As he said the words of the blessing with his prayer shawl over his head, others copied him, putting their own prayer shawls over their heads. A few brought young children up to him to be blessed. They had only heard of the birkat hakohenim, but had never seen it before.
The Jerusalem Report AIZAWL / NORTHEAST INDIA The hand-painted letters on the shutters of the "public phone service" announce "Sabbath close." On any other day locals can call long-distance for 42 rupees (around $1) a minute from the worn touchtone phone at this little convenience kiosk. But today is Shabbat and the booth's owner is at home in a sparse cinderblock cubicle at the back, which serves both as a tin-pot kitchen and a single-cot bedroom, and is dissected diagonally by the underside of stairs belonging to the residence above. She's a petite woman in a knitted white cloche, and is just saying kiddush over Styrofoam cups of grape juice and chocolate-cream biscuits, beneath a Xeroxed pin-up of the Ten Commandments rendered into the Mizo tongue.
Dozens of Majorca´s "lost Jews", or Chuetas, whose ancestors were forcibly converted during the Spanish Inquisition, will gather this Friday for a seminar in Palma de Majorca exploring their Jewish roots.
Hadassah Magazine  One growing group seeking to come home to Israel is bringing with them an unexpected bonus: Anousim have a devotion to Judaism that many have lost. Maria Villaralla knew that her mother’s family had Jewish origins in Spain. “We practiced Jewish tradition as much as we knew,” she says. a Ayelet Corona has Jewish roots on both sides and says her mother’s family came from a village in the Mexican state of Michoacan where most of the inhabitants “don’t mix milk and meat, didn’t work on Saturday and leave pebbles on tombstones.”
The Jerusalem Post  Interior Minister Avraham Poraz (Shinui) announced that he has decided to stop members of the Bnei Menashe group from coming to Israel. Over the last decade, some 800 members of the group from the Mizo tribe in northeastern India, which claims descent from a lost tribe of Israel, have immigrated, converted, and settled here.