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...
The Jewish holiday of Sukkot begins this Wednesday night and we have a few pictures to mark the festivities. For the past four years, the Jewish community of Katowice, Poland, has built a sukka (a temporary "hut" used during the week-long holiday) in the courtyard...
Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund was interviewed this week on Israel Radio's IBA News program. We have the audio and you can listen to it here....
The Isaac Cardoso Center for Jewish Interpretation in Trancoso, Portugal, was formally dedicated this weekend with a special "guest" - a new Torah scroll, the first to make its home in Trancoso in nearly 500 years. More than 60 people attended the dedication, including the...
When Gidon Elazar finished his mandatory military service, like so many other Israelis he had a hankering for travel. Setting his sights on the Far East, he spent much of his time in China. So began a decade-long fascination, one that continues today and that...
The signs were all around him, but it took 51 years for Mariusz Opałko to learn the truth about his Jewish heritage. Despite being surrounded by the mostly Jewish friends of his parents growing up, and even having a relative who was a famous klezmer...
The Bnei Menashe in India? The descendants of the Anousim in Spain? The Levi family who turned into Li in Kaifeng, China? Read Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv's take on Shavei Israel in this insightful profile of Founder and Chairman Michael Freund, as part of the "100...
Visit our exclusive gallery of photos from the bar mitzvah of Mariusz Aoflko at the Western Wall. An emotional journey from Poland to Jerusalem!...
Mariusz Aoflko grew up Catholic in Poland. He discovered his heritage from his dying mother 13 years ago. The revelation changed his life. Last week, he was in Jersualem to celebrate his bar mitzvah at the Western Wall. Here's the story....
Fabian Spagnoli doesn’t know why the man in the small shop in Spain said it. Spagnoli had gone in to buy a new blanket for his bed. Instead, the man looked at him and told him straight out, “You are a Jew.” Spagnoli and the...
