Shavei Israel celebrates Purim 2015 in style
Purim 2015 has come and gone but the pictures are still flowing in to the Shavei Israel office. Now it’s time to share them with you. So strap on your jet pack, we’re going for a ride.
Kaifeng celebrates Purim with masks and unusual fruit
Let’s start in far-off Kaifeng where the community is getting into the spirit of the holiday with masks and some very unusual looking snacks.
Rabbi Yehuda Gin at Bnei Menashe Purim celebrations in India
Heading west, we stop off at the Shavei Israel ”Fellows” retreat in the Indian Himalayan resort town of Yuksam where 78 Bnei Menashe leaders from Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Myanmar are attending the seminar. The retreat runs until March 18 with the theme “From Exile to Redemption.” Looks like Rabbi Yehuda Gin – who flew in from Israel to lead classes on Jewish Law – knows how to rock out on the guitar.
Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis shaves (some of) his beard for Purim in Poland
As our Purim jet flies over Europe, we pay a visit to Poland where our dedicated emissary in the town of Katowice, Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis, may have gone a little too far with his costume this year – he shaved off his beard!
Rabbi Salas and Purim celebrants in Portugal
A little further west, in Portugal, it looks like Rabbi Elisha Salas kept his beard in Belmonte. He sent us a picture from his community’s Purim celebrations.
Subbotnik Jewish celebration in Beit Shemesh, Israel
Time for a layover in Israel where the Russian Subbotnik Jewish community in Beit Shemesh, with its leader Rabbi Zelig Avrasin, certainly knows how to throw a party.
Bnei Menashe in Upper Nazareth
We also have some pictures from the Bnei Menashe communities in Upper Nazareth.
Bnei Menashe girl in Kyriat Arba
…and Kiryat Arba, south of Jerusalem.
Masks in El Salvador
Costumes in Colombia
Finally, we take a trip to the Americas – we have pictures from Colombia (thanks Jack Goldstein!) as well as El Salvador, where we travel with the Megillah which, as the sole Scroll of Esther in the country, did double duty in both the main Beit Israel community in the capital of San Salvador (with prayer services starting at the early hour of 5:30 am!), then high-tailed it to the smaller community of Armenia for its second reading of the day.