By Rav Reuven Tradburks Yaakov’s challenges never seem to end. He returns to the land of Israel. He is fearful of a confrontation with Esav. He prepares by dividing his entourage. A man fights him through the night, changing his name to Israel from Yaakov at...
The Bnei Akiva 'Hamenashe' chapter in Nof HaGalil has only about 40 kids so far, but as a new chapter less than three months old - every kid is a huge achievement. When the kids and the counselors, and even the person in charge are...
Samuel Devasahayam was the founder of the Zion Torah Center in Erode, India. He was a courageous, G-d-fearing man, who left a huge hole in a community when he tragically passed away in 2018. His wife, Anne, has continued with the legacy he left, on...
Rachael Spero is originally from Cleveland, Ohio, and spent 15 years living in New York City. She went to Jewish day schools through high school and continued her Jewish education through college. She majored in studio arts and graphic design at Yeshiva University and continued...
In Doreen Carvajal's memoir, The Forgetting River: A Modern Tale of Survival, Identity and the Inquisition (Riverhead), Carvajal discusses her ancestral journey from Costa Rica, her birthplace, to Segovia, Spain to discover her Catholic family’s hidden Jewish roots. In 2019, a documentary directed by Joseph...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Our Parsha begins with Yaakov fleeing the land of Israel from Esav’s murderous intent and it concludes with his return to the land of Israel. He dreams as he leaves of a ladder reaching to Heaven with G-d promising that He will...
Rav Reuven Tradburks This is the parsha of Yitzchak and Rivka’s life. Rivka has twins, Esav and Yaakov. Yaakov buys the birthright from Esav. Yitzchak goes to Gerar in a famine, is told not to leave the land, digs the wells Avraham dug and renews the...
Earlier this month, a special exhibit opened, in cooperation with Shavei Israel and the Indian Jewish Heritage organization, to celebrate the culture and traditions of the Bnei Menashe in memory of Yoel Lhanghal z"l, an 18 year-old who was murdered last month in northern Israel. The...
The writer and journalist Miquel Segura has been honored at Can Gelabert in Binissalem, a municipality in Spain, for his work in publicizing the Xueta memory through his literary work. The municipality of Binissalem has paid tribute to the writer Miquel Segura for publicizing and...
One of the communities Shavei Israel works with are the 'Hidden Jews' of Poland. These descendants of those few remaining Jews in Poland after the Holocaust who hid their Jewishness, are only finding out now about their Jewish heritage. Lodz is one of the cities in...
