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.
|
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.
|
|
BREAKING NEWS
Knesset committee calls to renew Bnei Menashe aliyah
In a dramatic development, the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs has issued a historic decision calling on the Israeli government to bring home the remaining 7,232 members of the Bnei Menashe community left behind in India. 
| | Bnei Menashe children in India waiting to make aliyah |
The Bnei Menashe, who reside in the northeastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, have been pleading for years to successive Israeli governments to be allowed to return to Zion. With Shavei Israel's help, more than 1,700 Bnei Menashe have made aliyah in the past decade.Committee Chairman and Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, MK Danny Danon, said at the Committee hearing that "it is the Israeli government's duty and responsibility to bring the rest of them home as soon as possible."Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund was invited to testify before the Committee. "Thousands of miles to the east, in the farthest reaches of northeastern India, there is an entire community that is anxiously awaiting the day when they will be allowed to rejoin the Jewish people," Freund said. "Despite being cut off for more than 2,700 years, the Bnei Menashe never forgot who they are or where they came from, and they never gave up on the dream of returning to Israel," Freund told the Committee. The Bnei Menashe claim descent from the tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who were sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire. Throughout their sojourn, they continued to practice Judaism, observing the Sabbath, keeping kosher, celebrating the festivals and following the laws of family purity.In 2005, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, formally recognized the Bnei Menashe as "descendants of Israel" and encouraged their return to Israel and the Jewish people. "I call upon the government of Israel to bring the remaining 7,232 Bnei Menashe home to Israel as soon as possible," Freund told the Committee. In recent months, Shavei Israel has been intensively lobbying Israel's government on behalf of the Bnei Menashe, and there is reason to believe that a breakthrough is imminent.
You can play a part in helping this community to return by supporting Shavei Israel's advocacy efforts. There is much more to do - to ensure that the aliyah is resumed, and to help settle the Bnei Menashe once they arrive in Israel.
Please support our ongoing efforts with the Bnei Menashe by clicking here or visit our Causes page on Facebook.
|
Shavei Israel's seminar for Polish
"Hidden Jews" a great success
 | | Dawida Zvi and Johany under the chuppah |
On a cold and snowy Friday afternoon late in December in the Polish town of Dinov, a very special wedding took place. Dawida Zwi and Johany tied the knot in an emotional ceremony, opening Shavei Israel's end of the year seminar for the "Hidden Jews" of Poland.The event brought together 30 Polish Jews, their families and children, who spent Shabbat through Tuesday in Dinov, located about two hours east of Krakow, along with scholars and rabbis from Poland and Israel. The theme was Hassidut and was held in the newly-opened Polish Center for Jewish Heritage in honor of the yahrzeit (memorial commemoration) of Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov.During the five-day seminar, Rabbi Yitzhak Rapoport taught "The Importance of the Sabbath in Judaism," and Rabbi Boaz Pash led a class on "The Mikve (ritual bath) in Hasidism." Both rabbis serve as Shavei Israel's emissaries in Poland.
 | | Seminar participants in Poland. It's cold in December! |
For many of the Polish Jews in attendance, it was the first time they were personally exposed to the Hassidic tradition. On Shabbat, they learned about the importance placed by Hassidism on singing and learning nigunim (religious melodies), and on Saturday night a documentary film on the Baal Shem Tov (founder of the Hassidic movement) was screened.Following Shabbat, participants headed out on several excursions, including visits to Sanok and Rymanow, formerly Jewish villages in southeastern Poland along what is known as the "Hassidic Route." As they toured, the group discovered, entirely by chance, a plaque that had been dedicated by Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund at the site of a pre-war synagogue in the city of Przemysl.
We have more pictures on our Facebook page.
|
 | | The Arditi's study at Shavei Israel's Machon Miriam Institute in Jerusalem |
Shavei Profile: A long journey home for Gila and Ariel Arditi, from Colombia to Jerusalem When Gila Arditi's grandfather purchased a burial vault for his family in Colombia, he made sure that the structure faced towards Jerusalem. His daughter is now living a dream her grandfather could only have imagined, moving with her husband Ariel and their two children to Israel. Gila and Ariel now study at Shavei Israel's Machon Miriam Conversion and Return Institute in Jerusalem. The path has not been a quick or easy one for the Arditi's. The couple, who are now in their late 60s, met when they were just teenagers. Their romance had a "West Side Story" twist: Gila's family were artisans, while Ariel had a strong agricultural background.Unlike Tony and Maria, though, this young couple from Bogota had a shared Jewish tradition. As Bnei Anousim - people whose Jewish ancestors were compelled to convert to Catholicism more than five centuries ago - both families kept many of the Jewish holidays, fasted on Yom Kippur and lit candles for Shabbat.Other customs Gila and Ariel kept growing up included salting their meat (a part of the process for making meat kosher), keeping separate sets of dishes for dairy and meat, washing hands before eating, and circumcising their infant boys. The families also sat "shiva" in a low chair when someone died, and they mourned for a year - the traditional Jewish practice.Ariel's large family - he has 9 siblings - went so far as move to a new village where the market takes place on a Sunday so they could refrain from working on the sabbath.
Read the rest of the Arditi's fascinating story on our website.
|
 | | From the exhibition in Jerusalem |
New exhibition on Bnei Menashe opens in Jerusalem
A new exhibition telling the story of the Bnei Menashe and curated by Shavei Israel is now on display at the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption in Jerusalem.
The exhibition, which opened on December 15, 2010, shares the struggles, joys and achievements of the Bnei Menashe community in India and Israel, and underlines the role of Shavei Israel in bringing the community home. It includes dozens of pictures and an historical timeline.
The idea behind this undertaking was conceived by Minister of Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver after she visited Shavei Israel's Beit Miriam community center for the Bnei Menashe in Kiryat Arba this past July. Minister Landver was so moved by her experience that she contacted Shavei Israel to create the project.
At the exhibition's inaugural ceremony, which was attended by Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund, Bnei Menashe community leaders, and local journalists, Minister Landver expressed her strong support for an immediate resumption of Bnei Menashe aliyah.
The exhibition will run for several months in Jerusalem. Several other municipalities in Israel have already expressed interest in hosting it later in the year. We hope that this will be the beginning of an ongoing traveling exhibition to raise awareness about the Bnei Menashe and their long journey home to Israel.
|
|
This month in social media
Here's some of what we posted to the Shavei Israel Facebook page this month:- Want a taste of our seminar for Polish "Hidden Jews" in Dinov last month? Here's a quick video.
- We have more pictures from the wedding of Dawida Zvi and Johany during our December seminar in Dinov, Poland.
- We also have pictures from Shavei emissary Rabbi Boaz Pash's Chanukah party in Poland. And a few photos from the Russian Subbotnik Jews' Chanukah celebration.
- Chief Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Shudrich was interviewed on CNN. Listen about two minutes in as he mentions Shavei Israel's role in supporting his important work in Poland.
- Listen to Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund in an interview with Josh Hasten on Israel National Radio about finding "lost Jews" and Israel's public diplomacy efforts.
- Do you read Turkish? Then here's an article for you on the Turkish Jewish website Salom on Shavei's new exhibition on the Bnei Menashe. The Spanish language Aurora website also covered the new display.
- Suite 101 has a good story giving background and history on the Bnei Menashe.
- Finally, Ynet wrote about Shavei Israel's new emissary to the Subbotnik Jews Rabbi Shlomo Zeleg Avrasin. And here's the story in Russian.
If you're not following us on Facebook yet, what are you waiting for? Click here to get started.
|
|
|
|
|
