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emerging Jewish communities

Rabbi Avraham Feldman speaks at the dedication of the Jewish center in Reykjavik, Iceland, on July 7, 2026. (Jenna Gottlieb/ JTA)
July 11, 2026, 3:30 am
Europe’s smallest Jewish community gets a home of its own — soon with geothermal mikveh
9,000-square-foot building in Reykjavik that once held a pub now serves as the city’s first permanent center of Jewish life, and is in the running for world’s northernmost Chabad house
By Jenna Gottlieb
The facade of the Kehillat Harlem storefront location on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard in New York City. (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
January 20, 2026, 12:44 am
At a former driving school, Kehillat Harlem plants roots for Jewish life in uptown NYC
The non-denominational ‘shul community’ is building Jewish infrastructure in a reemerging neighborhood that once had one of the largest Jewish populations in the world
By Grace Gilson
'Zhen Yu and the Snake,' by Erica Lyons. (Courtesy via JTA)
October 2, 2023, 6:33 am
Talmudic tale with 12th-century Chinese twist expands Jewish world for young minds
In ‘Zhen Yu and the Snake,’ author Erica Lyons adapts a well-known story about Rabbi Akiva’s daughter while also highlighting China’s rich Jewish history
By Jordyn Haime
Rabbi Gilberto Ventura leads the Jewish community of Catania in a recent service. (David I. Klein/JTA)
June 20, 2023, 6:57 am
With 1st rabbi in 500 years, Sicily’s Jews fight for mainstream Jewish acceptance
Despite decades of grassroots work, a community descended from Jews forced into hiding during the Spanish Inquisition fights an uphill battle against local religious bureaucracy
By David I. Klein
Over 100 Bnei Menashe have taken shelter in a synagogue in Mizoram amid sectarian violence. (Shavei Israel via JTA)
June 19, 2023, 5:33 am
India’s Bnei Menashe community in crisis as Manipur rocked by ethnic violence
NGO Shavei Israel says 1 Jewish victim has been killed, over 1,000 displaced, and 2 synagogues burned as houses and businesses of the minority Kuki tribe are razed
By Jordyn Haime
Samantha Woll, president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit, welcomes attendees to the congregation's centennial celebration and groundbreaking on a major renovation project, August 14, 2022. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency/ via JTA)
August 28, 2022, 2:59 am
Detroit’s last inner-city synagogue hopes to lead its Jewish communal future
With a planned $5 million renovation set to be complete in 2024, a young contingent is revitalizing the century-old congregation and renewing Jewish life in the urban center
By Andrew Lapin
Florence Wangiju poses for a photo on the street on a trip to Israel. (Courtesy of Winnie Wangu/ via JTA)
April 9, 2022, 6:57 am
How a conversion split — and then strengthened — Kenya’s Jewish community
After Florence Wangiju and her family struggled through a labyrinthine conversion process, Nairobi’s tiny congregation took years to fully accept them, then grew closer than ever
By Cara Tabachnick
Members of the Ahavas Torah Center in Henderson parade through the city during a Torah dedication ceremony in the mid-2010s. The Las Vegas suburb is home to a growing Orthodox Jewish population. (Courtesy of Ahavas Torah Center/ via JTA)
May 9, 2021, 5:05 am
What Nevada’s growing Jewish community loves about living Jewishly in the desert
A stone’s throw from Sin City, nearly 40% of the area’s 70,000 Jews have built a complete religious infrastructure – and their numbers are still growing exponentially
By Howard Riell
Rabbi Tanhoum Matusof lights a Hanukkah candle at a hotel in Monaco, December 25, 2016. (Courtesy of the Jewish Cultural Center of Monaco/ via JTA)
October 18, 2020, 11:01 pm
Monaco has highest ratio of Jews in the world outside Israel, and it’s growing
An extravagant new building has quadrupled one congregation’s visitors, but many of the wealthy principality’s 2,000 Jews feel just as comfortable in the more modest Chabad house
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Children sing during a program at the JCC Migdal in Odessa, in this undated photo. (Courtesy Kira Verkhovsky)
June 27, 2020, 4:07 pm
Odessa Jews protest new luxury apartments that could collapse historic synagogue
Built as house of prayer for kosher butchers in 1909, structure passed through Nazi and KGB hands and has been a JCC since 1991 — but may not survive new construction project
By Julie Masis
Rabbi Capers Funnye, left, and Martha Leah Williams, at the Jewish Africa Conference in New York, January 29, 2019. (Josefin Dolsten)
February 2, 2019, 9:23 am
African Jewish communities get more recognition after years on the margins
Largely ignored by the mainstream community and Israel, Jews in Africa are focus of first conference that’s not exclusively for academics
By Josefin Dolsten
Yehudah Kimani blows a shofar on December 13, 2017, in his home of Kasuku in the highlands of Kenya. (courtesy Yehudah Kimani/Facebook)
January 4, 2018, 2:13 pm
Kenyan Jewish leader, denied entry to Israel, can reapply for visa
Knesset committee raps Interior Ministry, which the Conservative Movement accused of discrimination against Yehudah Kimani, who wanted to study in a Jerusalem yeshiva
By Melanie Lidman
Illustrative: About 100 'Bnei Menashe' (Sons of Menashe) from India landed at Ben Gurion Airport, on June 25, 2015, immigrating to Israel. (Flash90)
August 28, 2017, 11:10 pm
Israel mulling outreach to ‘emerging’ Jewish communities
Government committee to propose easing visa regulations for visitors with Jewish roots to tour, study in Israel
By Josefin Dolsten
Elysha Netsarh visiting the US from Madagascar to speak about the Jewish community there. (Josefin Dolsten/JTA)
December 7, 2016, 9:12 am
In Madagascar, ‘world’s newest Jewish community’ seeks roots
After 121 Malagasies converted to Judaism, all that remained was to build a religious infrastructure. Now, the community seeks funds abroad to establish itself
By Josefin Dolsten
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