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Michael Freund
Bnei Menashe brides, grooms and guests at a group wedding in Kfar Hasidim, Israel. (Laura Ben-David/Shavei Israel via JTA)
April 5, 2017, 1:20 am
10 Indian-Jewish ‘lost tribe’ couples remarried in Israel
Group ceremony is part of formal conversion to Judaism for members of Bnei Menashe, believed descended from biblical Manasseh
By JTA
Members of the “Bnei Menashe” Jewish community in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, India, on their way to the airport, February 12, 2017. (Shavei Israel)
February 14, 2017, 5:35 am
‘After 27 centuries of exile,’ 102 Indian Bnei Menashe head to Israel
Members of ‘lost tribe,’ to arrive Tuesday and Thursday, will join community in Nazareth Illit
By Josefin Dolsten
Members of the Bnei Menashe Jewish community celebrating Hanukkah in Churachandpur on Dec. 8, 2015. (Shavei Israel)
December 30, 2016, 6:06 am
Bnei Menashe Indians celebrate far-flung Hanukkah
Members of ‘lost’ community in northeastern state of Manipur gather to make sufganiyot, light candles
By JTA
Some members of China's Jewish community in Kaifeng on the first night of Hanukkah, December 6, 2015. (Shavei Israel)
September 25, 2016, 8:25 am
Chinese authorities crack down on tiny Jewish community
Study center serving Kaifeng’s 1,000 Jews closed by authorities, public events canceled, report says
By TOI staff
From left to right: Li Yuan, Yue Ting, Li Jing, Li Chengjin and Gao Yichen standing in front of the Western Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem, February 29, 2016. (Laura Ben-David/Courtesy of Shavei Israel)
February 29, 2016, 8:21 pm
5 Chinese women immigrate to Israel, plan conversion
Members of Kaifeng community, believed to be founded by 8th- or 9th-century Jewish traders, to undertake formal process to become Jews
By JTA and Stuart Winer
Damage caused by a 6.7-magnitude earthquake in the northeastern Manipur state of India, which is home to the Bnei Menashe community. (Shavei Israel)
January 5, 2016, 3:11 am
Indian quake rattles ‘lost tribe’ of Bnei Menashe Jews
Tremor of 6.7 magnitude that killed nine also causes damage to homes, property of Jewish community in Manipur
By Stuart Winer
Rabbi Michael Freund (right) stands next to Absorption Minister Ze'ev Elkin (center), while the latter holds one of several young immigrants who arrived on a group flight, June 18, 2015. (Courtesy Ze'ev Elkin's office)
June 19, 2015, 1:55 am
3,000th Bnei Menashe touches down in Israel
78 new arrivals to live in the Golan, part of the land allocated to tribe of Menashe in the Bible
By Gedalyah Reback
Hundreds of members of the Bnei Menashe community hold a model Passover seder in Churachandpur, in the Indian state of Manipur, Tuesday, March 31, 2015. (Jonathan Haukip/Shavei Israel)
April 2, 2015, 6:46 am
Bnei Menashe Seder in India reflects hopes of aliya
Community that claims descent from ancient Israelite tribe already has thousands of members in Israel
By TOI staff
Inside a synagogue in Krakow (photo: courtesy)
June 26, 2014, 5:22 am
Is new contentious Krakow chief rabbi the result of power struggle?
Amid allegations of real estate interests and exclusive membership policies, the community’s ruling family remains silent
By Cnaan Liphshiz
An actor entertaining visitors to the Jewish Christian Passover Celebration last month at Medelim, Portugal. (Beira Baixa TV via JTA)
April 13, 2014, 6:29 am
Iberia’s former Jewish towns jostle for afiko-money
Passover-themed celebrations are proving tourist draws in Iberian locales with no Jewish populations
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Kaifeng (Photo Credit:CC BY-SA,drnantu/Flickr)
April 8, 2014, 1:19 pm
Chinese descendants of Jews return to roots with seder
Kaifeng, a once thriving outpost of Jewish trading families, to hold communal Passover meal
By Gavriel Fiske
Jewish immigrants from India, members of the Bnei Menashe community. arrive at Ben Gurion airport (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
October 20, 2013, 6:10 am
‘Lost’ Indian Jews come to Israel despite doubts
The Bnei Menashe community, whose rituals have only glancing similarity to Judaism, has been permitted to make aliya en masse
By Ben Sales
Illustrative photo of a young man reading from a Torah scroll (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
July 22, 2013, 1:40 pm
Portuguese town receives Torah scroll, Jewish learning center
None of Trancoso’s 5,000 residents is Jewish; before the expulsion, half the town’s population was
Jose Ribeiro e Castro, who spearheaded the law to naturalize the Jewish descendants of expelled Jews, speaking at the Portuguese parliament. (photo credit: Portugal's National Assembly/JTA)
July 12, 2013, 8:16 pm
Portugal becomes 2nd country, after Israel, with a Jewish law of return
500 years after the expulsion of its community, Lisbon’s new legislation corrects a moral wrong, albeit with some ‘economic considerations as well’
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Mariusz Aoflko (center) celebrates his bar mitzvah at the Western Wall (photo credit: Sasson Tiram/Shavei Israel)
May 30, 2013, 5:58 pm
‘Lost’ Polish Jew, 64, marks bar mitzvah at Western Wall
Mariusz Aoflko, who grew up Catholic, discovered his heritage from his dying mother 13 years ago
By Lazar Berman
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