It’s an increasingly common story among the Jews of Poland: a grandparent, lying on his or her deathbed, reveals to the grandchild a shocking secret – that the grandparent and, as a result, his or her family, is actually Jewish. The phenomenon has occurred so...
It was after 3:00 a.m. on Thursday of last week, in the small airport outside Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, and the group of 38 travelers was exhausted. Young and old, these members of the Bnei Menashe community, which traces its descent to a lost tribe of...
Shavei Israel’s emissaries in Europe, South America and India have a busy schedule planned for Hanukah this week. Here are some of the highlights from the Bnei Menashe in India, Bnei Anousim in Spain, Portugal and Colombia, and the Hidden Jews of Poland....
Our latest video: a short documentary telling the story of Subbotnik Jews Ariel and Moriah Shishlenikov and their aliyah process. Learn more about Shavei Israel's help in enabling the aliyah of this proud couple and many other Subbotnik Jews, most of whom hail from Visoky,...
The November 15, 2013 weekend edition of The Jerusalem Post Magazine ran a major feature on Shavei Israel's recent seminar in Katowice, Poland and the revival (or continuation) of the Jewish community there. Here's how the article appeared in the print edition....
Ruth Haokip came from India, a member of Bnei Menashe, “the children of Menashe.” Jin Jin grew up more than 1,700 miles away, in Kaifeng, China. And on the Upper West Side, they spoke about what they had in common: Both were members of “lost”...
It’s called “Study of Torah Street” in Chinese and for hundreds of years was the center of Jewish life in the ancient Chinese capital of Kaifeng. But since the 1850s, when the synagogue was shuttered and the last rabbi passed away, the “Study of Torah...
Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund will be speaking this Thursday, November 7, 2013, at Touro College and University in New York. If you're in town, click here to view more details....
Slowly and somewhat hesitantly, Karol began to recite the blessing before the reading of the Torah. With his parents and siblings looking on in evident pride, and the congregation enveloping him in warmth and joy, Karol underwent this sublime rite of passage into manhood, just...
The rabbi didn’t know what to make of Genie Milgrom. She had placed on the table before him reams of documentation going back hundreds of years, all demonstrating what she hoped would be incontrovertible proof that her family’s ancestors in Spain were Bnei Anousim. There...
