Back to school for Bnei Menashe

With a healthy does of excitement and anticipation, the 2016-17 school year in Israel has begun. For the Bnei Menashe immigrant children there are many unique challenges and therefore numerous creative solutions. In each Israeli community where Bnei Menashe live, Shavei Israel has worked together with the municipalities and...

When Shavei Israel announced the publication last week of its new book in Spanish, Do You Have Jewish Roots?, we expected a few hundred people to request a free download of the eBook version. But within 48 hours, so many people had clicked to receive...

There was a lot of dough at a recent Rosh Chodesh (first of the month) event in Maalot. The type that turns into bread; challah, to be specific. This special "hafrashat challah" or separating challah event was with Rabanit Tali Kook. It took place in the...

Shavei Israel is proud of the 270 Bnei Menashe who have settled in Maalot in the north of Israel.  Watch this exciting and very moving celebration of Bnei Menashe accomplishments at Yeshivat Maalot in honor of the completion of a professional course of study by a number...

Rachel Souza Lima’s greatest hope is the return of all Bnei Anousim. Rachel (Elizabeth), 39, declares this as she tells the fascinating story of how she returned to the Judaism of her ancestors, and of her remarkable journey from her native Brazil to the land of Israel, where she lives today with her husband and children. A native of Lucélia (St. Paul), Rachel, a widowed mother of four, remembers her very first meeting with her rabbi. That pivotal event was enough for her to recognize that the customs that had been handed down in her family through generations, such as kashrut and family purity, meant that she had Jewish roots.

All Jews are considered to be the children of the biblical Abraham and Sarah. A new exhibition at Beit Hatufsot, the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, highlights some of the amazing diversity of those children. Entitled “The Children of Abraham and Sarah,” there are...

[caption id="attachment_32927" align="alignleft" width="300"] Olga (left) studying with R. Baumol (center) in Krakow[/caption] Olga grew up in Poland as a Christian Pole with no connection to Judaism until she discovered her Jewish roots at 12 years old. From that point Olga went on a journey towards...

Rio de Janeiro’s Jewish Museum is best known for its collection of 69 menorahs and Jewish ritual objects designed by Russian-born artist Rio resident Joseph Feldman. The small museum – the only one in Brazil until a new museum in Sao Paolo opens later this...

Abigail (Marina) Erlich was scheduled to stand before the rabbinical conversion court to formally return to Judaism when, at the last moment, she revealed to Rabbi Elisha Salas, Shavei Israel’s emissary to Portugal and her guide through several years of study, that she believed she...

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