The Spanish island of Mallorca maintained a lasting and notable Jewish community dating back to the second century. Flourishing and accepted during both Muslim governance and following the Christian "reconquest" in 1229, Mallorca's Jewish population faced a turning point in 1435. As a result of...
Between the Stone and the Flower:The Duality of the Conversos covers the incredible journey of Genie Milgrom and her decades long quest for her Jewish lineage. Genie, a close friend of Shavei Israel, was born in Havana, Cuba and raised in Miami with a full...
Author Ronit Treatman, a good friend of Shavei Israel, grew up in Venezuela, only to discover, decades later, that many of the Catholic families she grew up with are actually descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities forced to convert during the Inquisition. Ronit, who lives...
Writer, researcher and dear friend of Shavei Israel, Genie Milgrom met with Pope Francis at the Vatican's private library this week. The private audience was organized by Rabbi Avi and Nehama Tawil, leaders of the European Jewish Community Center in Brussels. She was accompanied by...
https://youtube.com/shorts/Vpth3xZHCTM?feature=share This fun video short by Unpacked, the website that helps people uncover the complex Jewish world, introduces our own Chaya Castillo, and her husband Eliav Riera, who are both descended from 'crypto Jews' who were forcibly converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition.Their families fled...
The Shavei Israel Maani Center hosted the fascinating lecture entitled “Bnei Anusim, Past and Present” by our dear Edith Blaustein. It is important that from both a personal, and a national level we must not forget the past of the Jewish people; let us learn...
"The Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography" by Susan Chevlowe (2005) is a beautiful photographic coffee table book. Featuring ten photographic and video projects by emerging and mid-career artists, all commissioned by The Jewish Museum, the book presents a range of provocative discussions of the...
Shavei Israel, together with the Beit Midrash Sephardi, have appointed Rabbi Eliyahu Franco as a new emissary to El Salvador, where he has taken up his position to work to strengthen Jewish life in the country. More than 500 years after their Iberian Jewish ancestors were...
Shavei Israel hosted a historic Chanukah candle-lighting ceremony at the infamous Palace of the Inquisition, bringing light to a building which symbolized darkness for centuries. The event, which was organized together with the Beit Moshe Jewish community in Mexico City, was all the more powerful due...
Shavei Israel has a new Emissary in a most likely of places: Cuba. And we are all very excited about providing this community with much-desired Jewish support! Rabbi David Córdoba, himself born in Cuba, emigrated to Israel in 2018 after his own personal quest where he...
