Noach has always seemed one of the most irrelevant of all the Parshiot in the Torah. There are so many parts of it that are difficult to understand much less justify with our contemporary understanding of the world. Even the basic premise that G!d punishes...
The Shaar Hashamaim community of Guatemala, created as a result of a local initiative, united people of different ages and backgrounds who were dedicated to keeping Jewish traditions but didn't belong to the larger groups or communities represented in the country. Today it consists of...
No one sent us as many wonderful photos of their Sukkot celebrations as did the many Bnei Anousim communities throughout South America! Local communities from Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Venezuela and other countries that shared their beautiful pictures of their sukkahs, meals and festive celebrations and...
Here were are again, Breishit. It’s a beginning, it may be the beginning, but of what? What’s the hardest part of being Jewish? It’s not eating Kosher, it’s not the month of Tishrei, it’s not even the antisemitism. The hardest part is that our days...
This week, Shavei Israel communities all over the world together with all of world Jewry celebrated the beginning of the new, 5780th Jewish year - Rosh Hashanah. From Ecuador and Colombia to Portugal and Poland, people gathered in the synagogues and community centers to listen...
As the Jewish High Holidays approach, a special tradition of reciting Selichot (communal prayers for Divine forgiveness) is followed. The Selichot are said every day until the end of the High Holidays, which begin with Rosh Hashana and conclude with Yom Kippur, the Day of...
Earlier this week, the Jeff Seidel Student Center in Tel Aviv was packed with college-age students from the United States, Europe and South America. These students, doing either a semester or a year abroad at Tel Aviv University, came to hear our own Laura Ben-David...
The Igbo are one of Nigeria’s largest ethnic groups and among them is a minority of some 4000 people practicing Judaism and defining themselves as the descendants of a lost tribe of Israel, We have previously written about Igbo here and here. This week Nigeria is...
The Beit Toldot community is located in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador and consists of approximately 10 families who decided to reconnect with their Jewish roots under the supervision of Rabbi Shimon Yehoshua, Shavei Israel's emissary in Colombia. The recent Shabbat was very special for...
This week Israel and the whole Jewish world are celebrating the holiday of Purim, and as every year we have a selection of pictures received from our emissaries in various Jewish communities across the globe. Though the communities are located in some of the most...
