Last weekend, Shavei Israel organized an extraordinary Shabbaton for the Hidden Jews of Poland in the town of Oscwiecim, adjacent to the Auschwitz death camp. The seminar, which was attended by close to 50 local Jews, also included several members of the press who flew in from Israel. We have pictures, video and links to articles about the seminar in this post. Read more...
order cialis onlineorder levitraPhoto gallery from Shabbaton in Oscwiecim, Poland
Update: First Passover Seder on Portuguese island of Madeira
Two weeks ago, we told you about Jerusalem residents Danby and Dr. Marvin Meital who, with Shavei Israel’s help, organized the first Passover Seder in centuries on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Well, the article went viral. The result: participation in the Meital's unique Seder increased more than 50%.
“As soon as we arrived in Madeira at noon on Monday, the day of the Seder, we were overwhelmed with phone calls,” Danby Meital tells us, excitedly. “The phone didn’t stop ringing until 6:00 PM,” just before the holiday. Here's the story. Read more...
India’s Bnei Menashe commemorate Yom HaShoah for the first time
On Sunday evening, for the first time, the Bnei Menashe community in India commemorated Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day. The event took place in the main Shavei Israel center in Churachandpur with 400 community members in attendance. Participants wore yellow star armbands as a mark of solidarity with Holocaust survivors. Sixty candles (to represent the six million who were murdered in the Holocaust) were lit and a goshem – a traditional Bnei Menashe trumpet – was blown, followed by a minute of silence. Read more...
On eve of Yom HaShoah, young Poles with Jewish roots gather for weekend seminar near Auschwitz
Every year on Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day, which this year begins on the evening of April 7, 2013, thousands of Jewish teens, adults and survivors from around the world participate in the March of the Living, a two week trip to Poland, which culminates in a 3-kilometer silent march from the Auschwitz to Birkenau concentration camps. Participants learn about the horrors of the Holocaust and the Jewish community that once flourished in Europe. The imparted meaning is one of remembrance; of gaining some insight into the tragedies that befell the Jewish people, particularly in Poland. That’s not a message that necessarily resonates with the estimated 4,000 Jews who are registered as living in Poland today, however. Rather, today’s Polish Jewish community is looking forward, striving to build fully Jewish lives infused with joy, renewed Jewish culture and deep study. And that is the goal of Shavei Israel's most recent seminar for the Hidden Jews of Poland. Read more...
VIDEO: Four Bnei Menashe weddings in one day at Givat Haviva
The joy experienced by the Bnei Menashe who have made aliyah from India in the last three months has been twofold. First, of course, there is the fulfillment of their lifelong dream of immigrating to the Promised Land. But a lesser known simcha (happiness) has been the flurry of weddings that have taken place at Shavei Israel’s Givat Haviva Absorption Center, where the Bnei Menashe have been living since their arrival...sometimes as many as nine a day! Read more...
Shavei Israel sponsors first public Passover Seder in centuries on Portuguese island of Madeira
In just under a week, on an isolated island tucked away deep in the Atlantic Ocean, some 600 miles from the European continent and 300 miles away from Africa, a most unusual Passover Seder will be taking place. Thirteen Jews, many of them Bnei Anousim – descendants of Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism more than 500 years ago – will gather in Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, to celebrate the Exodus from Egypt. It will be the first public Seder held in over five centuries in a region that once had a thriving Jewish population until the Inquisition arrived, even in this remote location, so far from the mainland. Read more...
New Bnei Menashe synagogue dedicated in India
A new synagogue for the Bnei Menashe was dedicated at the end of February in the village of Thinghejang, about 50 kilometers from the main Shavei Israel center in Churachandpur. Both are in the state of Manipur, where the majority of Bnei Menashe live. Thinghejang has a very small Bnei Menashe community – only 15 families with around 85 members. This is not surprising given how isolated the village is: there is no road for vehicles and access is via an hour and a half hike across the hills of the Leimatak mountain range. Those who make the trek, though, are rewarded by beautiful views all along the way Read more...
Israeli Chief Rabbi greets newly arrived Bnei Menashe immigrants
Last Thursday, Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, along with members of his staff, paid a special visit to Shavei Israel’s Absorption Center in Givat Haviva to congratulate the 274 Bnei Menashe immigrants from India who arrived in the Jewish state in recent months as part of a renewed wave of aliyah. The meeting between the Bnei Menashe and the Chief Rabbi was by all accounts remarkable. As the Chief Rabbi’s car approached the absorption center, the Bnei Menashe literally ran out to meet it, singing and dancing along the way until the car could drive no further. The Bnei Menashe then escorted Rabbi Amar into the center where their enthusiasm continued. Read more...
A Special Shabbat in Lodz, Poland
Some 40 “Hidden Jews” of Poland gathered last month in the town of Lodz for a weekend seminar sponsored by Shavei Israel. The Shabbaton was geared specifically for graduates of previous Shavei seminars for Polish Jews, including our three-week program in Israel last summer. We have some fantastic pictures of this most recent seminar in several special photo galleries - read the article and view the pictures. Read more...
Mandarian in the mikve: Chinese Jews in Israel take the final plunge
Last week, the small and unassuming mikve (ritual bath) in Hod HaSharon witnessed the unfolding of a remarkable scene in the annals of Jewish history. One by one, six young Chinese men, all descendants of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, immersed themselves in the warm and purifying waters before a three-man rabbinical court, thereby completing their long journey home to the Jewish people. It marked the first time that a group of Chinese-Jewish men had undergone a formal return to Judaism in the Jewish state. And for Yaakov Wang, as well as the others, it was the fulfillment of a life-long dream, one that had been passed down to them by their ancestors throughout the generations. Read more...
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