Personal Stories

When family and friends used to ask Baruch Israel what he wanted to be when he grew up, he didn’t answer like the other kids by specifying a profession. It wasn’t a doctor or a lawyer to which Baruch aspired. “When I grow up, I...

Agnieszka Z was on her way to Israel for the first time. That's because only two years ago, when she was 19, her grandmother invited her to her home for a chat and said the words she heard would change her life forever: “My child,...

What do the Chinese people as a whole know of the small Chinese Jewish community in Kaifeng? Not much, says Aaron Wood, who was born in Beijing, grew up entirely oblivious of Jews and Judaism, and yet today lives as an observant Jew in the...

"I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m Jewish. I need proof. I need your help. I’m begging you. Please point me in the right direction.” Genie Milgrom receives hundreds of emails like this one every year. Milgrom, president of the Society...

Heng Shi is a Chinese Jew, born and raised in the city of Kaifeng, along the banks of the Yellow River, among hundreds of people in Kaifeng who are descendants of the city’s Jews. Through Shavei Israel's help, he made aliyah and now lives in...

Yotam Ginminthang Baite is 32 years old, with his own carpentry business, living on India’s northeastern border with Myanmar. All of his family - his parents, his siblings and their families - have already made aliyah to Israel. Finally Yotam, his wife and children are...