This week saw two in-person events at our Ma'ani Center after many months of mostly Zoom programs due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The first was a tour of our new exhibit on the Kaifeng Jewish community. The tour, which was held in English, included a slide...
We are always happy to see how our communities grow and become stronger. A marriage within the community is a great example of this and we are very proud, as well as happy for the new couple. When Hillel David, from the community of Beit Hillel...
Rav Israel Latapiat, our emissary in Santiago, Chile, in the the Chazon Ish community, had more things to celebrate this past month than just the holidays. His grandson, Moises, celebrated his bar mitzvah and it was a special celebration indeed. Moises says, "I was born on...
Ma'ani Center, a Shavei Israel project sponsored by Israel's Ministry of Culture, had its latest ‘Higanu Habaita’ program. This series of seminars, whose title means ‘We’ve returned home,’ introduces new immigrants with exceptional stories. This week we brought Yonatan Kashtan who served from 2016-2019 in...
It is always with the greatest of pleasure that we receive joyful stories and photos like these from our communities around the world. This time we received photos from the mother of Rajel Muñoz Rivadeneira, a bat mitzvah girl from Ambato, Ecuador who celebrated her...
Shavei Israel is happy to introduce you to Yosef Mendez and Bruria Brito, from Venezuela, students of our Machon Miriam, Spanish language conversion institute. Bruria and Yosef, married for almost eight years, are about to get married again - this time according to full...
This month a very special event took place in Cali, Colombia that touched the hearts of many, particularly the Shavei Israel team. We want to congratulate Rabbi Asher Abrabanel and his wife on their marriage and wish them a life together full of blessings,...
Fifteen Jewish families in Guatemala City with nowhere else to go came together to build the Shaar Hashamaim Bnei Anousim (Converso) community. Among the community’s founding members is Gerardo Flores and his wife, Aury de Flores. But they are more than just figureheads. The couple, married...
Among the many emotional and exciting stories of people coming to Israel for Aliyah despite personal and financial hardships, the case of the Mizrachi family is exceptional. The couple met in Colombia where Avi, an Israeli Jew, was visiting in 1999. He and Liliana, who is Colombian and...
This week the Ma'ani Center, along with Israel's Ministry of Culture, presented Esther Astrug, as she shared her extraordinary story to a Spanish-speaking audience; the latest in the series of conferences devoted to various lost and hidden Jewish communities around the world. Esther, who converted...
