“Is motivation essential for creating new lifestyles?” While the question may seem a general one, for Dr. Efrat Kedem, it has been anything but. Kedem has been researching the role of motivation with a specific group of young women who have immigrated to Israel with...
Polish seminar participants sift through archaeological treasures in Jerusalem[/caption]
What was the highlight of your summer vacation? While it’s still only early August, for 21 young Poles with Jewish roots, the answer is already clear: Israel.
Shavei Israel’s annual summer seminar in Israel for a group of “Hidden Jews” of Poland concluded last week. The group traveled up and down the country as they toured, studied and discovered the beauty of the Jewish people.
Their two-week itinerary included Shabbat in the Old City of Safed; scaling the heights of Mount Arbel and hiking in the Judean Desert (including up the “snake path” to uncover the mysteries of Masada); and taking a break from the heat by traipsing through a river near Beit Shean. The group had a full schedule of activities in Jerusalem: a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance museum and nearby Mount Herzl military cemetery, exploring the narrow alleyways of Nachlaot in the city center, plunging into the tunnels that run alongside and under the Western Wall, and sifting through archaeological treasures at Emek Tzurim near the City of David. After ten years in the Heichal Shlomo building adjacent to Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue, Shavei Israel has moved to new, more spacious offices to better support our growing number of activities in Israel and abroad. Shavei Israel's Machon Miriam Spanish and Portuguese-language Institute for Conversion and...
As Operation Protective Edge continues in Gaza, the Bnei Menashe rallied last week to show their support for the Israel Defense Forces. 25 Bnei Menashe joined another 200 residents of Migdal HaEmek to wave Israeli flags, sing songs and recite psalms. 35 Bnei Menashe families...
The first in a new series of profiles of Bnei Menashe who have made aliyah recently and are living in the Kfar Hasidim absorption center. Meet Aviel Hangshing - at 93, the oldest Bnei Menashe to immigrate with Shavei Israel....
Martha didn’t have a Hebrew name but desperately wanted one. Damian has no documentation of a Jewish past but suspects he has Jewish roots. Iga is in the process of converting to Judaism and works at a Jewish organization called "Cholent." Dymitr's grandmother revealed the...
Shavei Israel has opened its first Internet radio station. If you’re a Portuguese-speaker, then “tune in” to www.radioshabel.com, the home of Shavei Israel emissary Rabbi Elisha Salas’s latest project, a website that streams Jewish music and classes 24 hours a day (but not Shabbat) to...
Shavei Israel has opened its first Internet radio station. If you’re a Portuguese-speaker, then “tune in” to www.radioshabel.com, the home of Shavei Israel emissary Rabbi Elisha Salas’s latest project, a website that streams Jewish music and classes 24 hours a day (but not Shabbat) to...
If you ask a Bnei Menashe immigrant to Israel what the happiest day of his or her life was, you’ll often receive the response, “When I made aliyah.” But for Esther Colney, who came to Israel from India with her family at age 15, it...
Shavei Israel has been awarded a grant from the Natan Fund, a community of young philanthropists based in New York City, dedicated to promoting Jewish and Israeli social innovation. Shavei is one of 54 grants granted by Natan for 2014-2015....
