More than 30% of Belmonte Jewish community members suffer from a mysterious visual ailment. Help came, of all places, from their Hebrew teacher! Read the fascinating account of how this came to be....
Rabbi Salas, Shavei Israel's emissary in Portugal, delivered a lecture on kashrut in a most unusual place: at the "Mercadinho" festival ("market" in Portuguese), the Monte do Bispo annual autumn event....
While seated at bar in Seville, we asked if they had any information about Jewish life there. Surprisingly, the answer was Yes. They pointed us to the Jewish Museum of Seville, and there we began to immerse ourselves in the incredible history of the Jewish...
"Sukka hopping" is one of our favorite holiday activities - whether in real life or online. We started with pictures of sukkot in construction, then visited the Bnei Menashe to see their completed Sukkot in India. And now we take a quick trip around the...
The Behar family immigrated from Colombia to Israel two years ago. That would be cause for celebration on its own. But Shavei Israel and the Shufersol supermarket chain made it just a bit sweeter this year. The Behars were one of the recipients of a...
We started with India, but let's move west and south now, as we visit check out the sukka building in Krakow Poland and Belmonte Portugal, before jaunting to South America where we see what the Bnei Anousim communities in Colombia and El Salvador are building....
As Rosh Hashana approaches, it’s traditional to count one’s blessings. For the Antolinez, Camargo and Maloof families, there’s one blessing that stands out more than any other: the zechut (privilege) of starting a new life in Israel. Meet three proud new immigrant families, along with...
It’s becoming a sweet tradition for the new immigrants who’ve arrived with Shavei Israel’s help in recent years: gift coupons from the Shufersol supermarket chain. For the second Rosh Hashana in as many years – and the third time following an initial donation on Passover...
Sarah Israel has written a book about her family’s Jewish journey – from hidden Bnei Anousim roots and mysterious family traditions revealed after 500 years of hiding in Spain, to formally converting to Judaism in Jerusalem in 2009, to her son's Baruch’s first pair of...
The Portuguese town of Belmonte has renovated and reopened its Jewish museum, which is the largest in the world about Bnei Anousim. The project had a budget of $350,000 and was timed to be ready for the annual European Days of Jewish Culture project which...
