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. Please click here to support us.
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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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Rabbi Elisha Salas  | Shavei Israel sends new emissary to Portugal's crypto-Jews
In 1497, the King of Portugal presented the Jews of his realm with an impossible choice: convert or die. While some chose death, most of Portuguese Jewry was dragged to the baptismal font and compelled to accept Catholicism against their will. Many, however, remained loyal to the Jewish roots and continued to pass down the faith and practices of their ancestors in secret.In
the past twenty years, a growing number of these crypto-Jews (or Bnei
Anousim in Hebrew) have re-discovered their heritage. To support their
heroic search for connection with the Jewish people, Shavei Israel recently
stepped up its outreach efforts to the Bnei Anousim living in northern
Portugal by dispatching Rabbi Elisha Salas, a dynamic and experienced rabbi, to
serve as Shavei's emissary there.
Rabbi
Salas will be based in the Jewish community of Belmonte, where some 150
Portuguese Bnei Anousim formally returned to Judaism more than two
decades ago. He will teach Jewish culture, history and tradition, and will
conduct a range of educational and social activities.
Beyond
Belmonte, Rabbi Salas will travel to towns and villages throughout northern
Portugal where there are large concentrations of Bnei Anousim, many of
whom are seeking to return to their roots.
Rabbi Salas
was born in Chile and made aliyah in 1999. His essential mission is nothing
short of closing an historical circle: reaching out to the once-hidden Jews of
Portugal, embracing them, and welcoming them back home to the Jewish people.
If
you would like to help support Rabbi Salas's work in Portugal, we welcome your
contributions. Visit the Support Us page on our website to partner with us in this important
endeavor. |
Yehoshua Yacobi  | Shavei Profile: Yehoshua Yacobi - a Bnei Ephraim finds his way to Israel
The Bnei Ephraim is a small community in rural India that claims to be the descendants of the biblical tribe of Ephraim, exiled from the land of Israel nearly 3,000 years ago. While their history is far from clear-cut, at least one member of this group has found his way to Israel, where he has lived for the last 17 years.39-year-old
Yehoshua Yacobi was in his mid-20s when he began to practice Jewish tradition
in the remote Andhra Pradesh state of southeastern India. His father, Shmuel,
is considered the "founder" of the Bnei Ephraim community. A former Christian
preacher, Shmuel visited Israel in the early 1980s and became convinced that
his - and his people's - past was Jewish, not Christian. The Bnei
Ephraim, Shmuel asserted, migrated from northern India, or perhaps via
Afghanistan or the Mizoram and Manipur regions (where the Bnei Menashe settled
after their own wanderings), settling ultimately in an area called Nandial. Upon his
return from Israel to India, Shmuel was joined in his journey to Judaism by his
siblings and their children - some 30 families in total (today there are 120
families in the community). Shmuel's brothers Tzadok and Aaron became community
leaders in their home village of Kottareddipalem and established several
synagogues. Shmuel's son Yehoshua took his dreams and fulfilled them by
immigrating to Israel in 1993. To read the rest of this story, please click here to continue to the Shavei.org website.
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The "four species" come to Israel - with the help of Shavei Israel
This Sukkot, Shavei Israel sent over 100 Arba Minim (the "Four Species") from Israel to
the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram so that the Bnei Menashe could celebrate the holiday. We have some great pictures on our Facebook page. Here are two of our favorites:
Bnei Menashe kids with etrogs  | Look at the size of that etrog!  |
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This month in social media
Here's some of what we posted to the Shavei Israel Facebook page this month:- Shavei
Chairman Michael Freund was interviewed on two different radio programs -
on Kol Yisrael - Israel's national radio network - and on the Rusty Mike Internet radio station from Jerusalem.
- We have two new videos profiling our 2010 seminar in Israel for the "Hidden Jews" of Poland. They're in both English and Hebrew.
- There's also a nice slide show of pictures and music from the Polish-language seminar on YouTube. Plus articles in the U.K.'s Jewish Chronicle and Ynet (in Hebrew).
- Ynet and JTA wrote about our new Yom Kippur machzor for Brazilian Jews of the Amazon.
- On a more upsetting note, we reported on a new study finding that one in three Spaniards are anti-Semitic.
- On the other hand, CNN broadcast a video about a neo-Nazi couple in Poland who discovered they had Jewish roots and now live an Orthodox Jewish life.
If you're not following us on Facebook yet, what are you waiting for? Click here to get started.
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