About us
Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org) reaches out and assists "lost Jews"
seeking to return to the Jewish people. These include the Bnei Menashe
of India, the Bnei Anousim of Spain, Portugal & South America, the
"Hidden Jews" of Poland and others.
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Please support Shavei Israel
We need your help to continue with our mission. You can volunteer or make a donation by following this link. We are an IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
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 Science confirms: the Jewish people are genetically linked
by Michael Freund
Chairman, Shavei Israel
Last month, the ongoing struggle against anti-Semitism added a powerful new weapon to its arsenal from an unexpected place: the Petri dish. In a remarkable set of findings, two genetic studies have confirmed what all of us knew emotionally and anecdotally to be true: that the Jewish people are an extended family in every sense of the word.
In the first report, a broad genome analysis of Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews from across the Diaspora found unquestionably strong genetic links between the two seemingly disparate groups.
The study, which was conducted by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, found that Jewish communities share much more genetic information between Jews than with non-Jews in the same geographic vicinity. In fact, Jews in those areas are related to one another as closely as are fourth or fifth cousins and are ten times as likely to be related as two people chosen at random off the streets of New York.
If that wasn't enough, a second study conducted by researchers in both Israel and Estonia found concrete genetic evidence that the Jewish people originated in the Middle East.
What's so important about these new reports? Isn't the connection between Jews something we all take for granted? Unfortunately not. In recent years, amid a wave of mounting anti-Semitism worldwide, a growing number of voices have begun casting doubt on whether the Jews constitute a nation. .
That is what makes these studies so crucial - by demonstrating that Jewish communities are genetically linked and that Jewish DNA ancestry traces back to the ancient Near East, they provide scientific validation for Jewish peoplehood and for our historical narrative
Of course, the Jewish people are about more than just genetics. We have always been open to those who wish to join the Jewish family, and we at Shavei Israel work tirelessly to help those who sincerely wish to become part of the people of Israel. In the article below, we meet Dr. Aaron Abraham, who chose to leave his Hindu background to embrace Judaism. With Shavei Israel's help, he now lives with his family in Israel.
As Jews, we have always been confident in the truth of our tradition, which is rooted in the Bible and in history, as well as in the heritage passed down to us across the generations. We can now add the laboratory to that list. Thanks to science, it can no longer be denied: wherever they might be, Jews everywhere are an integral part of a greater whole.
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Thanks to you, Bnei Menashe children are going to camp this summer
Last month, we reached out to
you to help
support Tirtza and Orchan Gin and dozens of other Bnei Menashe children
so they
can attend the Shavei Israel-sponsored summer camp in Kiryat Arba. And
many of
you came through.
We raised the full amount we needed to keep the
camp
going and provide scholarships to various Bnei Menashe families so that
their children can enjoy a relaxing and
fun-filled summer.
All of us here at Shavei Israel -
and more importantly the children - are grateful to you for your help.
Together
we can - and have - made a real difference.
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Dr. Aaron Abraham  | Shavei profile: Dr. Aaron Abraham - From tragedy in Mumbai to a Jewish life in Israel
Was it tragedy or fate that brought Dr. Aaron Abraham and his family from India to Israel? Abraham was the family doctor for Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivki, the young couple who ran the Chabad House in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay). On November 26, 2008, Islamic terrorists attacked several sites in the city, including Chabad. When Abraham learned that they had murdered five people inside the Jewish center, including the Holtzbergs, he was devastated.
Abraham's initial encounter with the Holtzbergs took place several years ago while he was working in a Mumbai hospital. Rabbi Holtzberg came in on a Friday with one of his boys who needed to be admitted. Abraham could see the rabbi was worried about leaving his son over Shabbat, "so I offered to stay with the child," Abraham recalls. From that point forward, the Holtzbergs turned to Abraham for all of their family medical needs.
Abraham then became a regular at the Holtzberg's Shabbat table. For over five years, he walked up to an hour each way through the crowded Mumbai streets to celebrate the Sabbath with them each week. He participated in their Passover Seders, celebrated all the Jewish holidays, and learned Hebrew and Jewish law from the Holtzbergs. "We were very close," Abraham says in fluent English. "We were never separated." Indeed, after the attack, it was Abraham who had to take the couple to the morgue.
With the Holtzbergs gone, Abraham realized there was no future for him in India. "It was very hard, very difficult," he explains. "I decided right away I had to come to Israel."
But Abraham's fateful journey to Judaism didn't begin in Mumbai. Nearly 20 years earlier, Abraham - then known as Bhagirath Mohandas Prasad - began to question his Hindu upbringing, which he says he found to be unsatisfying.
Our profile of Dr. Abraham continues here on the Shavei Israel website.
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This month in social media
Here's some of what we posted on the Shavei Facebook site this month:- Is there a Jewish connection in the African country of Senegal? Villagers of "Bani Israel" think so.
- Links to both of our new videos on Shavei's Machon Miriam Center for Bnei Anousim - in English and Hebrew (you can also find this on our YouTube channel).
- Links
to a number of
articles and videos about blind Bnei Menashe musician Dina Samte were
posted to Facebook this month.
- Links
to several inspiring articles including
one on 52 deaf children who celebrated their bar mitzvahs together in
Jerusalem, and Yedida Freilich's inspiring YouTube-only video "Only
Israel."
- In the press, the Vienna-based German-language magazine Das Judische Echo published an article by Shavei Chairman Michael Freund.
- Also in the European press, the Belgian magazine Joods Actueel had an article about Shavei's work with the Hidden Jews of Poland.
- Finally, Hadassah Magazine wrote about Shavei's emissary to Spain, Rav Nissan Ben Avraham.
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