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...
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...
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...
Roque Pugliese, a Calabrian Jew, tells the reality of Jews in southern Italy: a mix of tenacity, crypto-Judaism and love for Israel. Doctor Pugliese, what does it mean today to be a Jew in southern Italy? You must understand that the crypto-Jews in the south have lived...
This week, after five long years and many battles, we were blessed at last to bring our friend Eliav, from Cuba, before the Conversion Court in Jerusalem. Happily, he passed the test with flying colors! Eliav's ancestors were Spanish Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism,...
Our connection to Genie Milgrom is deep and rich. Whether it is enjoying her company on her visits to our Jerusalem offices or benefiting from her tremendous work on behalf of the Bnei Anusim, the value that the genealogist and crypto-Jewish researcher adds to our...
