https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/welcome daily 1.0 2025-04-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442508934029-56FM9V193ML20HC94WC9/image-asset.jpeg Welcome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1429024958365-EYK4NG5P0PDVI7ZRF9I5/image-asset.png Welcome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442507697983-0WS2TEW7WTM4SA9XSOYG/image-asset.jpeg Welcome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442509162504-QC857KVUMJ1GK9VOQBGY/thebook.jpg Welcome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1443632641027-VFN28AFG6BKS6K5811EF/image-asset.jpeg Welcome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1438292437905-T8SBSW16R1DZEX43QPD4/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scatteredamongthenations.com Welcome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442508101652-LFE7265I3L84DG51143O/projects 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1588787558944-Z31Z02W9BNLM8E3IUO5M/95259555_926344521132883_864175302882885632_n.jpg Welcome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1588787558651-PPF2HREZBOTU9F7JSM4M/95665641_322425512055727_5754319740625485824_n.jpg Welcome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1588784553810-4QT7A1NGRM9M32TA1FTJ/WalterAndEliseHaasFund.png Welcome https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1427984214133-WAJ00NWZ9I5KSUSQRMZR/home.jpg Welcome https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/zimbabwe daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668226553-0TW7N3TW84M60G0JHMLI/image-asset.png Zimbabwe Solomon Guwazah, a railway clerk and musician who lives in the small Zimbabwean city of Rusape, converted from Rastafarianism to Judaism several years ago when he decided that his people, the Shona people of Southern Africa, very likely descended from the ancient Jews. He, and many other community members who have come to the same conclusion, based this belief on the fact that many Shona cultural practices are more similar to those found in the Old Testament than to those practiced by Zimbabwean Christians. He is shown here blowing a shofar made of a kudu horn. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668102767-MI20YDVC1ITHYEJC2AOA/image-asset.png Zimbabwe Every Saturday morning over a hundred members of the Rusape, Zimbabwe, Jewish community gather at their "tabernacle" for Shabbat prayers. Members of the community, young and old, wear their absolute best -- brown three-piece suits for the men and brilliant turquoise blouses and jeweled hair wraps for the women. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668132885-XQGVQNNBGFK1THL42IZP/image-asset.png Zimbabwe "Rabbi" Ambrose Makuwaza leads the congregation in prayer. The sermon of the day explains the origin of the ancient Jewish custom of washing the feet before entering a house. Makuwaza explains the tradition, identified in the area with Jesus and Christianity, as a custom that was popular among the ancient Jews. Many members of the congregation have Christian relatives or used to be Christians themselves. Makuwaza often emphasizes the Jewish origin of "Christian" traditions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668078804-A95S94NGEVHWQNMBMTRU/zimscat2b.JPG Zimbabwe After Shabbat services outside of Rusape, Zimbabwe, Grace sits by herself in the empty tabernacle. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668254372-CFBBHBCFD8IOWW06Y7LX/image-asset.png Zimbabwe Young "Cantor" Martin leads the Rusape Tabernacle community choir in prayer. The choir practices several times and week and works dilgently to perfect its intricate harmonies and choreographed marches. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/portugal daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671420149-05K0N55H869KA1QYNUQR/belmonte2b.JPG Portugal During the Inquisition, "New Christians" etched crosses on their doorposts to prove to their neighbors their commitment to Christianity – though many continued to practice Judaism covertly. Before Portugal's Jewish expulsion edict of 1496, as much as one-fourth of the country's population was Jewish. In Belmonte, the centuries-old Jewish community went into hiding before 1500. However, unlike most hidden Jewish communities throughout Portugal and the New World, Belmonte's isolated community maintained its Marrano identity for 500 years. Belmonte has the only significant Jewish community on the Iberian Peninsula that survived the Inquisition. At the dawn of the 21st Century in Belmonte, approximately 80 former Marranos live among the narrow, cobblestone lanes of the medieval Jewish quarter, where the many carved doorpost crosses remind them of their ancestors' struggles. These days, Jews fasten mezuzot on their doorposts instead, reconnecting with their ancient faith. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671442991-4B14D42H34WKDQCFL44K/belmonte1b.jpg Portugal His whole life, Julio Mendes has sold goat, lamb and sheep skins in Belmonte -- a village four hours’ drive from Lisbon, in the foothills of northeastern Portugal. Anyone might have said Julio was just another Belmonte villager brushing the wool off his shirt at the end of each workday. But in 1988, Julio came out of hiding with approximately 80 other Belmonte residents and formally returned to Judaism, undergoing conversion. They had grown up as Marranos – a derogatory term meaning “pigs,” used to refer to Portugal’s Jews who adopted the appearance of Christianity and secretly maintained Jewish rituals during centuries of Inquisition. Now they were ready to be known as Jews again. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671472845-1KSMLSN2HJD3KJMJ57RR/belmonte4b.gif Portugal Since the community lost its rabbi, it has been sharply divided between those wishing to rush ahead with modern Jewish practice and those clinging to vestiges of their former, Marrano existence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671390474-4XVH340A26ZFP8JRUI13/belmonte5b.gif Portugal Back at their home one row of stone houses above the synagogue, Mercedes Mendes is ready to share something special. She leads the way huffing up three flights of stairs to the attic, with two year-old grand-nephew Isaac in tow. Beams of light filter through a dusty skylight in the low, sloping roof and illuminate stacks of cardboard boxes and a pile of rusted iron and red and white clay and ceramic bowls, roof tiles and jugs in the corner. Mercedes plants herself in a chair, catches her breath rearranging the Jewish charms on her necklace, and begins assembling one clay bowl with systematic punctures (like a colander) into an oxidized iron frame. Mercedes wards off energetic Isaac as she carefully lays two curving, red roof tiles on top of the clay bowl. She explains, “This big bowl is the fugareira, where we used to put the coals. On these roof tiles, we would bake the Pao Azumo, the bread of poverty, on Santa Festa – Passover.” After explaining each item, with stories of younger days spent with fellow Marranos singing, dancing and making their special bread in the countryside, Mercedes marvels, “I’ve never shown this to anyone before. You’re lucky.” “Today we get kosher matzah from Madrid. It’s been [many] years since we made our Pao Azumo. Isaac here,” Mercedes says, grabbing the toddler by the back of his shirt, “will never know our Marrano traditions.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671482588-CONIBVGVQG0UV9SFK9YN/belmonte3b.gif Portugal Ana Melia Rodrigo (left) and her daughter, Mercedes Rodrigo Mendes, tell stories and sing songs from the Marrano days. After a lifetime of practicing their family traditions in secret, it was not easy to adjust to open, modern Jewish practice. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/board daily 0.75 2021-04-23 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/news daily 0.75 2015-04-14 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/exhibits daily 0.75 2025-04-29 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/press daily 0.75 2020-07-02 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/south-africa daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437666766839-2MRQ93UAYLDVO1BIWGYT/rsascat3b.jpg South Africa "Do you know that ostriches are mentioned four times in the Bible," Isidore Barron says, reading fluently in Hebrew. Then he adds, somewhat indignantly, "It's always in a derogatory way. It says they're stupid, they put their head in the ground, they're not kosher, they're not clean …. An ostrich is far cleaner than a chicken but we had chicken for lunch!" "The rabbanim are meshugah!" Though he is willing to be critical, and though he pioneered the ostrich meat industry in South Africa, religious Mr. Barron has never tasted the unkosher ostrich himself. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437666748127-4WIFQUUVGV6QQCS683A9/rsascat5b.jpg South Africa The Lipschitz family are the last Jewish ostrich barons of Outshoorn to live in an "ostrich palace" - a 19-room estate which the family has owned since 1932. But today, the matriarch of the family, Ida Lipschitz, is not proud of her mansion, but of her homemade kosher wine. "Not to brag, but I'll brag - I'm the fastest 'korreller' around," says Ida Lipschitz, using the Afrikaans-language verb for removing grapes from their stalks. "It's done totally according to requirements and only Orthodox Jewish hands may touch it," Ida says of her wine. Ida and her daughter-in-law Bernice Lipschitz have taken second, third and fourth places in the national Kosher Ceremonial Wine Competition, but they are gunning for first place - they already take first for their custom-made labels. "Our wine is made of Muscatel and Alicante grapes," Ida confides, "but I won't tell you how many sugars - it's a secret recipe, passed down grandmother, to daughter-in-law to grandson!" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437666911771-1C4YCQGLE82SWJGYQ43K/rsascat4b.jpg South Africa "Ryan is through and through a farmer," says his father, Stanley Lipschitz. Ryan, 12, is quick to agree, "Of course I want to be a farmer. I'm not gonna go to school," he says, "I'll go straight through to working." The Lipschitz's run Safari Ostrich Show Farm - the largest of its kind in South Africa, offering rides on the birds, showing ostrich races with expert jockeys, selling ostrich egg art and feather creations. But the average tourist at the Lipschitz's farm would not survive a bareback ostrich race against young Ryan! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437666787893-XXHW7MBNZSE297RDUY0I/image-asset.png South Africa Isidore Barron, 75, is a third-generation Outshoorn ostrich baron. Arriving at his farm, the blue-eyed Barron steps out of his white Mercedes with its tan leather interior to survey his workers, his land and his beloved birds. He poses for a picture tickling a bird through the fence with a feather. The industrialist is fond of saying that he has "flown to over 70 countries on the back of a flightless bird." He speaks nine languages - six fluently. He discourses excitedly about his innovations in the ostrich industry, which include pioneering the ostrich meat industry in South Africa, new techniques in feather dying and concocting healthier formulas for baby ostrich chicks. "There are 64 types of feathers on an ostrich. Should I tell you about feather dusters?" Barron says, producing a glossy brochure from his business. A long-time Municipal Councilman and Alderman and one-time candidate for Parliament, Barron thinks he is finally ready to retire - but not to rest. "My wife of fifty years and I can write a book and travel and -- visit you!" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437666934495-733AQCPODCO7QTW2V0B1/image-asset.png South Africa Skidding his pickup truck to a halt in a cloud of dust alongside his ostrich corrals, Jack Klass warns to stand clear as he grabs an ostrich by the neck with his bare hand in one swift movement. "This is how you have to hold them," he says. For decades, Jack managed what many say was the world's largest ostrich empire while serving as President of his synagogue in Oudtshoorn. Jack's close-cropped white hair, ruddy complexion, prominent nose and brow, stocky build and powerful hands do not so much suggest refined leadership as an Israeli general - just the sort of man to command hushed-tone respect from this much-diminished Jewish community of farmers and small-town businessmen. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/morocco daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437666311469-221J4T6V88DOULTXUIAA/morscat4b.jpg Morocco A tablecloth dries on Friday afternoon in a sunny corner of the Hananiyah Elfassie's courtyard. He lives in a two-story facility, built with donations from foreign philanthropists in the 1970's and maintained by tzedakah from visitors and support from Morocco's king. Though not luxurious by Western standards, the home is much grander than the mud huts of many of Hananiyah's neighbors. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437666286111-Q7Y7W865HN9O1P7ZI3P9/image-asset.png Morocco Yamna Elfassie stood in the doorway to the tomb of Rabbi Shlomo ben Hensh. Yamna was the last Berber Jewish woman in the Ourika Valley of Morocco's High Atlas Mountains, two hours by bus from Marrakech. After over 40 years of marriage, she died in 2000, leaving her husband Hananiyah as the only remaining Jew in the Ourika Valley. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437666341509-XI9A2YBKHWCZKIWKSF5L/image-asset.png Morocco Yamna and Hananiyah Elfassies told the story of why they stayed in the Ourika Valley. They remained in the Ourika Valley to protect the tomb of Rabbi Shlomo ben Hensh, decades after all the other Jews left. Rabbi ben Hensh died more than 500 years ago, but they revered him as a Tzadik who lived after death, stopped the sun's course, and even turned into a snake to ensure himself a proper Jewish burial. Because of a recurring dream they shared, in which a snake became a staff blocking their path, the Elfassies were afraid to leave the gravesite. The Tzadik's tomb is said to be the source of miracles. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1428602357133-FY42SGY2NJBJ5563F57W/image-asset.jpeg Morocco Hananiyah Elfassie, the last Jew in the Ourika Valley of Morocco's High Atlas mountains, guards the tomb of a "Tzadik" who died 500 years ago. Foreign pilgrims visiting the Tzadik's tomb taped snapshots of famous rabbis to the wall behind him. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437666449659-ZQRD7OQD1GWMKLI56WA5/image-asset.png Morocco Once there were 300 Jewish families, two synagogues, Jewish schools, rabbis to perform circumcisions, bar-mitzvahs and weddings, and no shortage of kosher meat and matzah in the Ourika Valley. Then, in the 1950's and 1960's, all of the Ourika Valley's Berber Jews made aliyah to Israel, leaving only Yamna and Hananiyah el-Fasil. Today, none of the people are Jews in the red mud huts that make up the nine small, hillside villages lining the river. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/uganda daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442429569485-7NNT7EJEWFH3DMZ9VX8J/image-asset.jpeg Uganda An Abayudaya woman wears a traditional, brightly-colored Ugandan dress. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442429393307-7BS066J6DRRQB8VIAEZS/ugscat2b.JPG Uganda The Abayudaya have long knitted their own kippot, which men such as Enosh Keki Mainah wear during religious observances and on other special occasions to show their pride in being part of the community. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437667903289-ONGLM2YLAAIB4WROE32O/ugscat3b.JPG Uganda Kezikia Bumba, eighty year old President of the Abayudaya Men's Club, was one of the first converts to Judaism in the hills surrounding Mbale, Uganda, in the 1920s. Bumba learned about Judaism from the community's founder, Semei Kakungulu, and passed his knowledge to younger Abayudaya as a religious instructor and prayer leader. Today Kezikia Bumba still practices the Judaism Kakungulu taught him, blending Hebrew prayer with songs and chants in Luganda, the local language. Bumba works as a welder, and in his spare time welds menorahs for his Abayudaya neighbors. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442429536444-6FBBZK7RHHTEP0G8H0EG/image-asset.jpeg Uganda Samson Magombe is the ninety year-old former spiritual leader of the Abayudaya community. After community founder, Semei Kakungulu, died in the late 1920s, young Magombe became "Rabbi" of the community, leading prayer services at the Namanyonyi synagogue and teaching generations of Abayudaya children about Judaism. In 1976, Idi Amin became dictator of Uganda and forbade practice of Judaism, frightening members of the Abayudaya community into either conversion or hiding. Two thousand five-hundred of the three thousand Abayudaya converted to Christianity and Islam, and the remaining five hundred continued to practice in private, lighting candles in their homes rather than in synagogue, reciting the Shema in a whisper. After Amin was overthrown in 1979 the Abayudaya emerged from hiding to practice once again in public. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442428904846-T5FLGKD3DUNN9XR0XPTK/image-asset.jpeg Uganda Athaliah Deborah and her husband Musenze Pinehas in front of a typical Eastern Ugandan home. The sugar cane behind them is from a nearby field. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/ghana daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442430313049-CD3BT6CP8YNGY52653EF/image-asset.jpeg Ghana David Ahenkorah looks up from praying the afternoon service in the sweltering heat in Tefereth Israel, the lone synagogue of the House of Israel community in New Adiembra, Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana, in West Africa. He practically lives in the synagogue on Shabbat, when he leads services for the entire community, walking home only for meals. The heir to the vision of House of Israel’s founder, David is a Jewish missionary in his own right. “Very soon, New Adiembra will not be the only community,” he explains, mentioning two other villages in Ghana’s Western Region where he is already teaching Jewish traditions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442430364330-RIX9P7XB568NJQ2EY9WA/Ghana1b.jpg Ghana After helping to prepare the Shabbat meal, Kwame Armah leans out the window of his family’s kitchen and cleans his hands before nightfall. Children comprise many of the hundred or so members of Ghana’s House of Israel community. Unlike their parents, most of whom chose Judaism as their religion while they were adults, the children of the community have grown up with Shabbat, nightly meetings to learn about Judaism, and a strong connection with the Jewish people. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442430497025-UF6WL6A8O0AMLNADKRZL/image-asset.jpeg Ghana At Shalom Enterprises, owned by a local Jewish businessman, children play with dreidels and stickers they received as gifts from a foreign visitor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442430416832-YI93DP965QF2M3XQHPJ6/image-asset.jpeg Ghana Shortly before sunset on Friday, Frederick Edu pounds repeatedly as Florence deftly rotates the white starchy putty inside the cassava root, using the traditional wooden pole and carved wooden block. Through this process, they will make enough fufu—Ghana’s staple food—to last the family for Shabbat. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442430470590-VZ2CRRH56BIBROOS9K7Z/Ghana4b.jpg Ghana The House of Israel community’s miniature Torah is housed in Tefereth Israel synagogue in a glass and wooden case, which rests on the seat of a chair and is typically covered with a tallit. The Torah, carried to the community by Washington, DC-area resident Daniel Baiden, is removed from the ark every Shabbat morning. Though it is tiny, the community loves this Torah. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/tunisia daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437667587335-ZIPX8JWVXMSANW653W0J/djerscat9b.jpg Tunisia Djerba Jews pray on a sultry Friday afternoon in one of Hara Kebira's fourteen active synagogues. Hara Kebira was once among several Jewish villages on the island of Djerba, off the coast of Tunisia, where the Jewish community first settled 2600 years ago during the Babylonian Exile. Today, Hara Kebira is not only the last predominantly Jewish village on the island -- it is the last one in North Africa. The village's existence recalls a former age, as does its lifestyle. While these men in traditional Djerba dress spend their hours in prayer and study, their wives are at home, preparing for Shabbat. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437667526045-VKV6E6E56M4SI5P6C5YZ/image-asset.png Tunisia After growing up in the traditional Djerban Jewish town of Hara Kebira, many Djerban’s leave their families to travel or study abroad, often in France or Israel. Many Djerban families expect their children to study abroad and they do want to increase opportunity for them by allowing them to do so. However, Djerbans realize that fewer and fewer of their native sons and daughters return after their studies to settle on the remote island. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437667088248-8JJ7N40NTOZOKTF1W27Y/djerscat8b.jpg Tunisia On Friday afternoon, the old men in one of Hara Kebira's many synagogues nod off in the stifling heat, waking periodically to chant or argue Talmud. Suddenly, a Djerba boy showing tsit-tsit (fringes of an undershirt prayer shawl) runs into the doorway, looking for his friend. "Mikhael!" he yells into the sanctuary. The learned scholars do not even seem to notice. While waiting for friend Mikhael to retrieve the soccer ball, the boy observes with curiosity a foreigner behind him in the street. Pointing to his head, the boy addresses the man inquisitively, "Kipah?" stating the Hebrew word for yarmulke or skullcap. Growing up on an island, in the last Jewish village in North Africa, and spending his youth in cheder (Hebrew school), the boy is confused. He seems to wonder, "This man does not look like an Arab, yet he wears no kipah like the Jewish men. Should I invite him to play or not?" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437667123982-1EMTRQK3MCR5XS1N2SCO/image-asset.png Tunisia Noted ud player Yaacov B’chiri is the elder cantor of the Djerban Jewish community. B’chiri performs both Jewish and Arabic music, often blending Arab melodies into Jewish songs like the Hatikvah or singing Hebrew words to traditional Arabic music. Most Djerban Jews are trilingual, speaking fluent Arabic, French and Hebrew, so B’chiri can always find an audience for his multilingual music. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437667639983-CP3O9NMD7VILRFXR1C8T/djerscat4b.JPG Tunisia The many archways and ornate tiles adorning Djerba, Tunisia's fourteen synagogues evoke the flamboyant style of Muslim mosques more than they resemble traditional Jewish temples. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/peru daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437669045025-UNSAMKJERMXYBE7XVZ79/peru6b.gif Peru Julio Raza, who goes by his adopted Hebrew name, Yishai, allocated a small cement courtyard in the center of his home to the Inca Jews for use as a synagogue. Yishai’s home was located in a neighborhood of Trujillo, Peru called Jerusalén (the Spanish spelling of Jerusalem), in a section of town called La Esperanza ("The Hope"). Thus, the makeshift synagogue is in "Jerusalem of the hope" ­ or better stated, Yishai said, "a hope of Jerusalem." "In the more than 36 years since I first became interested in Judaism, I never lost the hope, or as we say in Hebrew, ‘Ha’Tikvah,’ that someday I might reach Israel." He continued, "Israel is G-d’s beloved child. G-d only wants Israel to make teshuva, returning to the mitzvoth (commandments). G-d is always awaiting this moment." A great moment arrived for Yishai Raza and his family in November 2001, when they were formally converted to Judaism. They made Aliyah in May 2002. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437669120782-UEA47MZD11KDL4EJ2428/peru1b.gif Peru Agustin Araujo is President of the community of Inca Jews in Cajamarca, nearly 200 miles and 8,000 feet of elevation into the Andes from Peru’s northern coast. Because the isolated Cajamarca community had difficulty accessing any established Jewish entity, its members were forced to improvise. Every year during the High Holidays, Agustin blows the shofar he made by hand. Though one restaurant-owning family in the community donated funds to build a synagogue, the Inca Jews still must use a miniature Torah sent by relatives who emigrated to Israel over a decade ago. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437669153688-QEM1POI3AS2A23G9PZBJ/peru5b.gif Peru Nine year-old Meir Perez, wearing tsitsit, bicycles down the alley behind his home in Trujillo, Peru. Meir’s parents, community president Nilo Perez and Yona Perez, have practiced Judaism since before Meir’s birth. Judaism is the only religion young Meir has ever known. In the fall of 2001, with the help of Scattered Among the Nations leaders, a panel of visiting Orthodox rabbis formally converted the Perez family to Judaism. In 2002, the family immigrated to Israel in a group of 84 Inca Jews. Approximately 180 Inca Jews remain in Peru, awaiting the same opportunity. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437669072038-KV3323ZTJH0NV86YR13U/peru4b.gif Peru Luis Aguilar and his family first studied Jewish texts in this cramped room of their Trujillo home. Luis, an engineer, became interested in Judaism after the Six Day War in 1967, when he read Theodore Herzl’s The Jewish State. "We had never met a rabbi or a Jew," Luis recalled, "but we became very emotional reading this book." Once the Aguilars were exposed to Jewish practice, they waited for a decade to convert so, in Luis’ words, they "could go to Israel and live as Jews." During their decade in limbo, Luis’ family suffered severe economic hardship because of the family’s steadfast Jewish observance. As he explained, "Aside from the fact that there is little work in Peru, when an employee puts conditions on the employer, he is thrown to the street." In Luis’ case, his "conditions" were that refused to work on Shabbat or major Jewish holidays. Finally, in November 2001, Luis Aguilar and his family were formally converted to Judaism. They fulfilled their dream of making Aliyah in May 2002. Today, Luis and his family do not have to choose between religious observance and gainful employment. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437669105118-97JC07AGZIFCKYXA0PNC/peru3b.gif Peru Jose Urquiza prays in Hebrew at home in Milagros, a particularly impoverished section of Trujillo, Peru, while his family watches. The Urquizas are among the last remaining practitioners of Judaism in Milagros, the former neighborhood of Segundo Villanueva, whose charismatic leadership began the Peruvians’ movement toward Judaism. Jose Urquiza, who taught himself to read Hebrew using an Aleph-Bet chart, has practiced Judaism for more than ten years with his family. Yet, they were passed over for conversion by the Beit Din which visited Trujillo in November 2001. Regarding the Urquizas present difficulties, Jose says, "We try to study the Torah and the Shulkhan Arukh (code of daily Jewish observance) day and night," referring to his careworn, photocopied versions of the texts. "The problem is, we need someone to teach us, because we cannot understand our responsibilities very well on our own." https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/agentina daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668463496-68DAFEV9O985ZDGYPUKX/image-asset.png Argentina Hermann and Golde Gerson, married 50 years in Moises Ville, Argentina, share a mate (Argentine herbal tea) in their home after Hermann returns from another long afternoon in the fields. Emulating Moises Ville's founders, the Gersons dedicate themselves to keeping the town's Jewish community institutions running against all odds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668431494-DGKQW3PSCUU1252VLGR2/moises1b.gif Argentina Hermann Gerson, 79, and his non-Jewish riding partner, Lorenzo Sosa, 78, have been working together for over 60 years at Gerson’s ranch on the Pampas. On a typical afternoon, the pair corral a herd of cattle. Lorenzo rides in screaming from atop his horse behind the stampede as Hermann swings his rebenque (a short leather whip), hooting and shouting to scare the cows into the pen so he can start the day’s branding. Just before sunset, driving home from the range, Lorenzo shares a few tidbits he has learned from Hermann over the years. “This Hermann,” Lorenzo says, winking, “has a meshuguneh kup (crazy head, in Yiddish).” Hermann retorts in kind: “Kish mir in tuchus.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668354636-A7BSVS7XHJ0KB68AGANZ/moises2b.gif Argentina Borito Trumper, 35, returned to the vigorous life in the Pampas after years studying and working as a professional in Israel. "I went to Israel with the idea of staying there," he recounts. "I came back to Moises Ville simply because I didn't feel comfortable. My customs are from Moises Ville, country customs." Now Borito patrols his herds on horseback, traversing the same fields his family has worked for a century. He fluently intersperses discussion of his Jewish identity with a lesson in horseback riding and a lecture on the benefits of cross breeding cattle to produce superior beef. Borito represents the future of Moises Ville’s “gauchos judios.” As he says, "It would never occur to me to stop tending my fields and herds here again." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668411508-TWYFS6WZM6PIEAQMX8EE/moises3b.gif Argentina Hermann Gerson, President of Moises Ville's Baron Hirsch synagogue, reads Torah from the bimah, which Moises Ville’s Jewish ranchers fashioned like an ornate corral, with hand-sanded, stained and varnished logs at cross-angles. Hermann briefly trained to be a rabbi in Germany before his family fled from the Nazis to the Argentine Pampas, where he has been a rancher ever since. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668391806-01XTMESLZA0ABRWUSSB0/moises4b.gif Argentina The old way still works in Moises Ville, Argentina. Moises Ville’s original settlers were clever and tough enough to thrive deep in the Pampas, building great Jewish institutions like this school (left) and synagogue (right). These same instincts may help their descendants to overcome Argentina’s current political and economic crisis. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/azerbaijan daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671663413-AAT1FX1ZWPG1JP4ELE7M/azer1b.GIF Azerbaijan Shammai Menachemovitch Israelov stands with his grandchildren, young Shammai (pictured at age 10) and Ruga (pictured at age 8), on the street where he has lived for more than seven decades. The elder Shammai worked 52 years as a telephone operator in Quba, the Azeri town that abuts Krasnaya Sloboda. He says the biggest difference between the Communist period and the present regime is "what we built, what we earned." "We lived peacefully under the flag of the Soviets," Shammai recalls. "It was a good time. There was enough money for everything." Now, Shammai's hard-earned pension has been gutted and the costs of necessities are skyrocketing. Nonetheless, Shammai will not let a Krasnaya Sloboda visitor escape town without enjoying a meal with his family in his life-long home. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671575488-9W9ZWF2G0T0JWO97FNSF/azer2b.gif Azerbaijan "We did not have our own shokhet (Jewish ritual slaughterer) for eight years in Krasnaya Sloboda," Elazar Nisimov reflects as he wets and sharpens, wets and sharpens, wets and sharpens his long blade. "My friends could not have meat for the holidays, so I decided to learn to be a shokhet, so everyone could have kosher meat." Elazar studied eleven months in Israel to be certified before returning to his village. This is his first day on the job. He tests the blade on his calloused thumb, then continues methodically sharpening. "If it is cut wrong, it's tref (unkosher)." Dozens of villagers gather in a cluttered square with their chickens for the upcoming Passover feast, birds and men all clucking with excitement. Elazar, well-trained and unfazed, slits one chicken throat after the next. The young, religious men are especially eager. One observes that he has gone over a year without meat while waiting for a certified shokhet to visit. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671679455-DCW9XF63A7H4BX1GJYRQ/azer5b.gif Azerbaijan Krasnaya Sloboda's young men lead the community. At age 20, Elazar Nisimov had already taken his place among the village's oldest learned men. Having just returned from Shurut Ami yeshiva in Israel, where he became a certified shokhet (Jewish ritual slaughterer -- see photo/caption below), Elazar reads through the morning prayers in Hebrew like a native-born Israeli. Though he may eventually return to Israel, for now, his talents are needed in his village, where he is admired both by the younger boys and the older men. The latter grew up during the Communist era, when Jewish learning like that which Elazar received was strictly prohibited. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671644192-XNK0KS91K0M3IFX6V7ZQ/azer3b.gif Azerbaijan Nisim Nisimov is a world-renowned purveyor of Azeri and Mountain Jewish music, which share the same musical tones. Here, he plays an Azeri "muham" melody on his tar with words in Ju'uri, the unique Mountain Jewish language derived from Persian. He sings and plays centuries-old, contemporary and original compositions, about generations of families, mischievous children, unrequited passion between Jewish boys and Krasnaya Sloboda girls, and "Seeya Choomha," a black-eyed Jewish woman who falls in love. Nisim also directs a chorus of local boys, some of whom sing in festivals around the country. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671616414-RDUKX55Q0MM987CV3Q3X/azer4b.gif Azerbaijan Mazanto Agarunov is the matriach of a family that includes five children and -- so far -- ten grandchildren, though she expects many more. Passover calls for a family feast every day -- not just during the Seders. The table is laid with the traditional holiday "ashkana" beef stew, the "khoyagusht" spinach and egg dish, fried beef cutlets, nuts, a blood-red pomegranate and copious sweet mint tea. The Mountain Jews will not eat anything made with powdered sugar on Passover, perhaps because it might contain grain, so every table includes a bowl of sugar cubes. The women prepare "hasorut," which probably evolved as a mispronunciation of "haroset" during centuries of isolation and decades of Communist religious repression. The only imported item on the table is the matzah, supplied since the early 1990's by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671587788-RD80DN09QFRC373KBVO4/azer6b.gif Azerbaijan Rabbi Natan Noachovitch Iliaguyev leads the last active synagogue of the thirteen that functioned in Krasnaya Sloboda before Stalin exiled most of the rabbis to Siberia. Rabbi Natan's father, Rabbi Noach, quietly led the synagogue for forty years before his son inherited the job -- though neither of them was ever certified as a rabbi. Most could not openly attend the synagogue during Communist rule, but the community was permitted to hold its "Askara" memorial services each year to remember the anniversary of a loved one's death. The ceremonies were among the few opportunities to celebrate with the community in a Jewish context and communicate Jewish traditions. Even with religious freedom now restored, Askara remains a cherished custom in Krasnaya Sloboda. Ten men, a host of fruits and plenty of vodka complete the occasion. The men respond "Amen" to each of Rabbi Natan's memorial prayers and "L'Chaim!" ("To life!") as the son of the departed makes the first of many toasts remembering his father. Every blessing said at the memorial pays tribute to the deceased. Since each type of fruit has its own Hebrew blessing, each of the ten men says a blessing for each piece of fruit he eats, with "Amen" responses around the table. The meal is frequently interrupted, but everyone leaves feeling very good -- for 10 A.M. on a Wednesday. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/ukraine daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671832843-5SELYU4NGHFMBOKRJI43/ukraine1b.gif Ukraine Yephim Chaim Vigodner (friends call him Pheema) and his son, Misha (pictured here at age 12), in the kitchen of their Bershad apartment. Pheema trained as a shipbuilder in Odessa but returned to his hometown of Bershad, where he now works full-time for Chesed, a branch of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee distributing food and other necessities to approximately 150 indigent Jews in Bershad and several nearby villages (former Jewish shtetls). Though Pheema’s older son lives in Israel – where the standard of living is much higher – Pheema feels he is needed in Bershad. “We don’t have any arguments with the Ukrainians, but we don’t make friends with them either,” Pheema explains. “We live separate lives, and must take care of ourselves.” But copper-headed Misha wants to go to Israel when he grows up. “At school, I’m not treated like the others, because they know I’m Jewish. One boy always hits me on the shoulder and says, ‘Zhid!’ (Jew!).” Misha explains, “I have a lot of books about Jewish history, culture and traditions, and I read them all, but there are no activities here – there are only seven 9-14 year-olds left in Bershad, and some are already leaving.” Misha is teaching himself some Hebrew for his upcoming bar-mitzvah and will attend a program sponsored by Chabad Lubavitch in Zhitomir, approximately six hours away. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671869716-78NEPG69KUHU2I34SZDI/ukraine7b.jpg Ukraine “There was a hole in the ground, and we lived in it,” says Vera Shvartsman Cheyved (left), remembering how she survived the Holocaust in Bershad. She remembers singing Yiddish songs to the doctor in the hospital after she was struck by a bullet. Today, she is still singing whenever she receives visitors, like Brukha Feldman (right), another Bershad native. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671772334-U8ZSWI04E5TEEBA6YYOW/ukraine6b.jpg Ukraine "It has the kind of walls that keep in the cold of winter and the heat of summer," says Bershad Jewish community President Yephim Chaim Vigodner (far right) breathing a good-natured sigh as he surveys his 200 year-old synagogue. The roof and floor sag. A pair of old tefillin (leather phylacteries) grows mold in the rotting podium. Rusty matzah-making machines and decaying volumes of Talmud litter the women's balcony. Yet, miraculously and mysteriously, the synagogue exists, surviving the Cossacks, pogroms, Nazis and Communists. During World War II, the Jewish population of the ghetto surrounding the synagogue swelled to nearly 30,000, as the Rumanians, Moldovans and Ukranians shipped their Jews to this shtetl (Jewish village) seven hours from Kiev. Today, of Bershad's14,000 inhabitants, fewer than 100 are Jews. On Shabbat, 20 of those healthy enough among the remaining community kiss the centuries-old mezuzah on the synagogue doorframe and gather on the creaky benches before the original ark. The problem is that after decades of Communist repressions, no one in the community can read Hebrew or recollect Jewish prayers. The last rabbi left in 1956. One frigid Friday night, an out-of-town visitor occasions a larger crowd than usual. Huddling with them, he teaches ancient Jewish melodies without words – for some, it is the first service they have ever seen. The community and synagogue seem to shed layers of dust and for an instant, their voices rise to the sky. Ironically, it may have been that very same dust which enabled them to hide these many generations. As Yephim says, "Perhaps we were humble enough to be spared." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671850482-3DT80OEHXP51EIYTHMFK/ukraine8b.jpg Ukraine The Purim spiel in Vinnitsya is a bawdy affair. Mordechai, pictured above in Hasidic garb, shocks elegant Esther with his indecent proposal. Cross dressing Jewish community officials, with gold teeth and uneven breasts, solicit young King Ahasuerus — who nonetheless chooses Esther for his queen. A Nazi costumed Haman loses his eye patch when he is tossed to the ground, spanked and ejected from the scene. Everyone sings, eats hamantashen and drinks vodka. Though Vinnitsya’s Jewish community has not recovered religiously from the Soviet-era prohibitions on Jewish practice, Jewish culture is undergoing a veritable revival. Jews and Ukrainians alike are keenly interested in Yiddish theater and Klezmer music, in particular. Holidays like Purim provide a perfect opportunity for showcasing community members’ talents, silliness – and resilience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671912887-2BH3KVBY81JT2G5NTL4A/ukraine10b.jpg Ukraine In the 1920’s, Zhmerinka had over 5000 Jews and nine synagogues. During World War II, the few thousand remaining Jews were concentrated within a ghetto, hundreds on this street. Many were forced laborers at Zhmerinka’s industrial hub - its railway station. The Rumanians, allied with the Nazis, controlled Zhmerinka during the War and sent 2000 Jews from the Zhmerinka ghetto to the Germans to appease Hitler and maintain control over the region. Today, the railroad tracks are eerily quiet. By the dawn of the new millennium, the railway station, still Zhmerinka’s biggest business, employed a Jewish President. Most of the remaining Jews are elderly. One young man reported that there were five fellow Jews with him in his fifth grade class, but by his high school graduation, there were none left. Nonetheless, since the community was reestablished in 1994, people have become more involved. At the beginning of the 21st century, community meetings were drawing 75 people at the town’s grandest building - the “State Cultural Center,” a former synagogue. The leaders work toward the restitution of one of their former synagogues, which they hope to open with foreign assistance. It will be the first functioning synagogue in Zhmerinka since the Communists shut down the last one in 1960. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/uzbekistan daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437672041923-YI8YH2TPMKR0XCTMM18L/image-asset.png Uzbekistan Tzivia Inoyatova sits every day on her crumbling doorstep next door to the synagogue in the Old Mahalla(Jewish Quarter) asking passers-by where they are from and where they are going. Even at home she seems lost, but her concern is not misplaced. In her lifetime, more than 10,000 Jews crowded the narrow dirt passages between the high mud walls of her neighborhood. Today only hundreds remain, and they are leaving fast for Israel and North America. Most of those who will stay are those who have nowhere to go. After perhaps 2500 years of Bukharian Jewish history, this community may soon have only ancient Jewish doors and a handful of ancient Jewish faces as a reminder of its past. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437672112091-4SB4O292A375VACVHJ2U/image-asset.png Uzbekistan Marina Borukhova operated the mikvah at Samarkand's new city synagogue. Her grandfather was a rabbi in the old Samarkand synagogue (the Gumbaz) and her family always kept Shabbat, Pesach and kashrut. "We were always proud to be Jewish," Marina recalls. Most of her friends and relatives have emigrated to America and Israel. Marina explains, "Life here is not bad, but there is no future." She asks, "One question: who will my children marry?" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437672100557-QX9OQO0JLQCAT8JHCR6F/image-asset.png Uzbekistan Every morning, Rafael Davydov, the former President of the Bukharian Jewish community, wears tefillin as he rapidly recites the shacharit service in Hebrew, barefoot in his bedroom. "I only started to teach myself Hebrew…after I became the community President," Rafael confides. During the Soviet era, it was prohibited and impossible. "In spite of the fact that I didn't know Hebrew," Raphael says, "we always ate kosher food, fasted on Yom Kippur, observed Pesach, and quietly performed circumcisions and bar mitzvahs." Now the community has religious freedom, but the Jews are leaving en masse. "It's too bad all the Jewish people left to America, Israel, Germany -- before we all lived here together as neighbors," Raphael laments. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437672069936-8RLKYULN8EWIBF6CK63X/image-asset.png Uzbekistan Malkiel Ashurov Levy worked 55 years for a Communist government shoe factory. When the Communists lost power, Malkiel's pension lost its value. Now his clothes and his tubeteika(traditional Bukharian cap) are filthy and he gets his groceries from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Not to suggest conditions were rosy during the Communist period: "We locked the doors to celebrate the Jewish holidays," Malkiel remembers. "The non-Jews said we made matzah with people's blood," he says, recalling the "Blood Libel" common throughout the Former Soviet Union and elsewhere. "The government took all my grandfather's things in 1929 -- 15 wagons of his belongings. He fled and my mother was taken to prison." After a pause, Malkiel asks, "Will you take me to prison because of this interview? Who will read this?" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437672133899-WG8PBRAUN58GF9D3ERJT/image-asset.png Uzbekistan Bukhara's Rabbi since 1974, Aaron Sianov dispassionately slaughters a chicken by cutting its throat in accordance with Jewish ritual -- without breaking any bones. The rabbi's passion only reveals itself when he sings. Rabbi Sianov is Bukhara's finest remaining performer of the town's distinctive, traditional Tajik-Jewish melodies. "The best time to listen is on Shabbat, or maybe with a bottle of vodka," he says, finally admitting a smile. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/articles daily 0.75 2020-05-19 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/authors daily 0.75 2016-04-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442510236350-9200QPY4SZF11L5ZSXXI/image-asset.jpeg BOOK - authors Sandy Carter https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442510280592-NPILN8O4YTARZBQ793QO/image-asset.png BOOK - authors Jay Sand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1428934655266-CEMIRDOS3VFACQJWUZZD/asia2.jpg BOOK - authors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442510084220-T40JMKDZTVM9PVDUHLMK/image-asset.jpeg BOOK - authors Bryan Schwartz https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442510650696-8VR6JZ8QVG1UVS88LMF8/image-asset.jpeg BOOK - authors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1428934680269-CF47NCE4MNHE7QLPO3VK/image-asset.jpeg BOOK - authors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1428934285193-HD5R6BHKPF9V3NZPP3WQ/uzbek4.jpg BOOK - authors https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/photos daily 0.75 2016-04-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1428935024198-NJLA5A28J37IDXHKF339/image-asset.png BOOK - purchase-photos https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/maybe daily 0.75 2015-04-14 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/benei-israel daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671104802-UYH8GDTVPDC60225AHI5/bombscat3b.jpg Benei Israel Dayan Samson Penkar stands at the doorway to Beth Ha Elohim, the 130 year-old synagogue in Pen, a village two hours southeast of Bombay. Bene Israel historians tell that when seven, exiled Jewish couples first shipwrecked on the Konkan Coast nearly 2000 years ago, they believed they would not stay long. As they scattered to villages, they took their father’s (or, if married women, their husband’s) names as second names (e.g., in Dayan’s case, Samson). They assigned surnames (e.g, Penkar) with the name of their village (in this case, Pen) and the suffix “-kar,” meaning in the local language, "a sojourner." Centuries later, nearly all of the Bene Israel – like most of their non-Jewish, Maharashtrian neighbors, have surnames ending in ‘-kar.’ Today, fewer than 10 Bene Israel families live in Pen, most with the last name “Penkar.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671123341-2BN9NZRYRQ4AZ3DVSTN3/bombscat2b.jpg Benei Israel Bombay bustles past the gate of the 140 year-old Mogen David Synagogue, the largest of the city’s six remaining synagogues, tucked in a courtyard off a major thoroughfare. Several times a week, exactly ten, poor, elderly men – nine of them Bene Israel – enter this Mogen David gate to constitute Bombay’s only weekday morning minyan. In return for keeping the minyan active, the Bombay community gives the men breakfast, and for Shabbat, a kosher chicken killed by Bombay’s only kosher ritual slaughterer (shochet) in Mogen David’s gravelly yard. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671071402-695ZZXMHQA1ZBV5BIBYU/bombscat1b.jpg Benei Israel Though the pictured Alibag synagogue dates from 1848, some say that for at least 800 years, the Bene Israel have prayed to the Jewish G-d in this village, three hours south of Bombay on the palm-bedecked Konkan Coast. The benches creak and the air hangs heavy in the mildewed Magen Aboth sanctuary. Nonetheless, each day, the old community members gather for prayers, and on Shabbat collect a minyan from the 8-10 Jewish families left in town. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671143760-W02R3SYW3CIFGCK8ALKJ/bombscat5b.jpg Benei Israel The Jewish community watches as two young Bene Israel siblings marry arranged Bene Israel partners on the same day at Thane’s Magen Hassidim Synagogue, India’s largest congregation. Chazzan Benny Dandekar made both matches. As children, the brides and grooms studied Hebrew prayers with Benny, and he remained close to their families. “Many people used to do the job of matchmaking,” Benny recalls. He considers himself blessed to be one of the few left in this role: “The chosen man from the chosen people!” Benny is fond of saying. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671085577-W681SJ6KECQ8TQ7KOX18/bombscat4b.jpg Benei Israel Ben Zion Gosalkar, the Bene Israel caretaker (Shamash) of massive Knesseth Eliyahoo synagogue in Bombay, prays during the afternoon service (Mincha). The 19th century temple once housed India’s wealthy Baghdadi Jewish community, but today the prayer leader (Chazzan) and most congregants are Bene Israel. Ben Zion has tears in his eyes before the service remembering his synagogue 50 years ago, before the vast majority of India’s Jews emigrated to Israel. “There were 15,000 Jews in Bombay – people would sleep next door to walk to synagogue on holidays. We needed extra services in the Sassoon Library across the street because there wasn’t room for everyone.” Scanning nostalgically from the rows of empty benches to the unused women’s gallery, he sighs, “Today, even on Yom Kippur there are only 25 people.” https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/brazil daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668810466-E4KC0G80XKT724I49IRH/image-asset.jpeg Brazil The Hamani family poses in their store in Obidos, on the Amazon River waterfront, where they have served passing navigators and "caboclo" jungle natives for decades. Mary (at far left) and Claudio (at far right) are first cousins. Marrying cousins was common among the Jewish communities of the Brazilian Amazon – where there were few other potential Jewish mates available. The Hamanis’ daughters, Ester and Carolina, do not wish to marry their cousins – so they must leave the jungle interior or assimilate, marrying non-Jews. Claudio believes this factor will eventually doom the Jewish community in the Amazon interior. “It is a great shame that the Amazon Jewish communities are disappearing,” Claudio says, “but our daughters don’t want to marry their cousins, and there is virtually no one else.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668575326-DLQRWXM7BU9M5CN5T64K/amazon.gif Brazil Rabbi Moises el-Mescany, 37, is one of two rabbis serving nearly 600 remaining Jewish families in the Brazilian Amazon. Rabbi Moises, who trained in Jerusalem, grew up in Belem, one of the two large state capitals in the Brazilian Amazon. Both of the rabbi’s parents were born in Obidos, deep in the Amazon interior. Rabbi Moises remembers fondly his childhood vacations spent at his grandparents’ in Obidos. "They all taught me the Jewish traditions," he reflects, "lighting candles and saying kiddush on Shabbat, making Seders on Pesach, building sukkot, fasting on Yom Kippur. It was difficult because my grandmother sometimes felt alone in the jungle." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668878344-QNMGVXDZLA8W6WA6ZA5X/image-asset.png Brazil When Rebecca Hamani died two years ago at age 94 in Obidos, her daughter Mary and son-in-law Claudio ensured that she received a proper Jewish burial in the town’s well-kept Jewish cemetery. Rebecca was the 16th person buried since 1918 in the tiny Obidos Jewish cemetery, surrounded by the royal palms so prolific in the Amazon jungle. Jews who caught yellow fever or malaria and died on Amazon riverboats rest under three unmarked graves. Claudio Hamani says, "When those three got here, someone said, ‘They were Jewish, take them,’ and the community buried them in Obidos." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437668729183-W7G37II6NH3ERU0P7GK8/image-asset.png Brazil Trading in "black gold" (rubber) and other jungle products, Jewish pioneers prospered, building some of Brazil's finest synagogues. The towering, domed Shaar Hashamaim synagogue in Belem, the capital of the Brazilian state of Pará, houses the country’s oldest Jewish congregation, dating from 1824. The synagogue building pictured dates from 1946. Belem still has 400 Jewish families and three active, Orthodox synagogues. https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/benei-menashe daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671204655-T1A0CD43WFSCFCHUKGIU/maniscat5b.jpg Benei Menashe Khandam Nodiel Ngaihte, a member of the Beith Hallel congregation, wears a typical shawl of her home Churachandpur region. She often spends long hours at the loom knitting traditional tribal shawls and, lately, Jewish prayer shawls (tallisim) and skullcaps (kippot). Benei Menashe women began producing their distinctive tallisim and kippot because their husbands could not afford to buy them. Their natural talents soon made these handcrafted Jewish prayer articles among the world's finest. Today, the Benei Menashe hope to support themselves against the dire Manipur economy through production and sales of Jewish items to fellow Jews around the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671309064-SC42NVN43YPEIUA2YYJQ/maniscat4b.jpg Benei Menashe A visit to Imphal’s Benei Menashe community would be incomplete without a ride in the Shalomobile auto-rickshaw taxi. Joseph Ngamkhoneh Haokip, who most frequently chauffeurs the typical Indian taxi, is trying to start a side-business selling Amway. Unless one owns a shop or taxi, or can buy a government position, there are no jobs in Manipur. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671298672-PTSJNZULOJ17IMJZMTUE/maniscat1b.jpg Benei Menashe Hundreds listen attentively to speech after speech praising G-d for finally allowing outside Jewish visitors to come to Churachandpur, two hours south of Imphal. Churachandpur embraced Judaism 25 years ago and still boasts the Benei Menashe’s flagship community, with several synagogues housing 1500 members. Yet, even Israeli Rabbi Eliayahu Avichail, the community’s father figure, was five times denied access to Churachandpur. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671240283-0JM8XL34BFOP5ZREMIV5/maniscat3b.jpg Benei Menashe Shlomo Gangte laughs with his son, Jeffy. Shlomo, who today runs Shalom Printing, dreams of studying Judaism in Israel or the United States. Shlomo says he would return to Manipur, establishing a Jewish school (Yeshiva) so his son Jeffy and other Benei Menashe youths will have the opportunity to learn more than anyone in Manipur can teach them today. “When I look at the Benei Menashe people,” he reflects in perfect English, “they really want to obey Torah, but do not know how. When we want to learn, we go to someone’s house and learn one from another. How long can we do that, if we don’t have an institution that can train us?” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1437671269140-4AZ3MPVVK46049IIDE0C/maniscat2b.jpg Benei Menashe Rachamim Hanshing, in traditional Benei Menashe shawl, prays over the staple food, rice, at a crowded dinner for Jewish family and friends. In his spare time, Rachamim, a metalworker, handicrafts mezuzot (small boxes containing prayers, attached in doorways and gates of Jewish homes). Rachamim’s father was a great tiger and elephant hunter in the hills around Imphal, the capital of Manipur, in northeastern India. Today, Rachamim says, “We are waiting for the land of Menasseh in Israel." https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/mexico daily 0.75 2015-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442431329515-NOV9W2C5C174ZV6WS57Q/MEX_B_03.jpg Mexico Men from Venta Prieta gather daily as morning light filters through the stained-glass windows of the Negev synagogue. They pray the morning Shacharit service, each wearing a kippah, tefillin (phylacteries) and tallit (prayer shawl). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442431258084-0HMU07ACFOJGA10MD8DO/image-asset.jpeg Mexico Shalom, and welcome, to number 103, 16 de Septiembre street, named for September 16, 1810, a date celebrated like July 4, 1776 in the United States. Here, long-timecommunity leader Ruben Olvera Tellez lives in a comfortable, middle-class country house, or quinta, protected by a yellow stucco wall. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442431539201-90ODNH672DB4V606V5WB/image-asset.jpeg Mexico Though he is growing up less than two hours north of one of the world's largest cities, young Shmuel, age 6, is not afraid of strangers. He rides, in the hours before Shabbat, down the middle of the street, between the brightly-painted stucco walls, on his shiny first bicycle, which he recently learned to ride. Skidding to a stop before a Jewish visitor, Shmuel's tzitzit dangling at his sides, his nascent peiyot moist with exertion, he looks up, asking the man, “What size is your kippah?” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442431646845-ZC9O57BBL6IVTVYJN8LT/image-asset.jpeg Mexico The family of Jewish community president, Shimon Islas Olvera at their home in Venta Prieta, Hidalgo, Mexico. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442431161687-MWRMMK47B0ELZNS00F2M/image-asset.jpeg Mexico Enriqueta Ruth Tellez Olvera is the current reigning matriarch of the formerly crypto-Jewish community in Venta Prieta—the oldest surviving granddaughterof Maria Trinidad Tellez Jirón, the community founder. She looks out from her bedroom window on Cinco de Mayo Street, where the Tellez family once had itshacienda. Enriqueta rejects the notion that she and her family were ever anything but Jews. “We are not converts. We are not new,” Enriqueta asserts.She explains, with conviction, “Since we were born, we have never known anything but Judaism. Here, you can’t practice Judaism out of convenience—you must feel it in your soul, as we have always done.” https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/press-12-18-15 daily 0.75 2015-12-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1450828491092-UVCFT4BA3W9CTUFA8GXD/image-asset.jpeg press-12-18-15 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/press-01-12-16 daily 0.75 2016-01-20 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/book-events daily 0.75 2020-03-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1428935024198-NJLA5A28J37IDXHKF339/image-asset.png BOOK - Events https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/press050520 daily 0.75 2020-05-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1588780149262-J1ZOLZ0TYMIL8IORBXT4/JewishJournal-05-06-20.jpg “Indian Jews from the B’nei Menashe Community Face Unique Pandemic Challenges” https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/press0520 daily 0.75 2020-05-14 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/press-05-05-20-1 daily 0.75 2020-05-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1588780149262-J1ZOLZ0TYMIL8IORBXT4/JewishJournal-05-06-20.jpg “Indian Jews from the B’nei Menashe Community Face Unique Pandemic Challenges” (Copy) https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/press0216 daily 0.75 2020-05-19 https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/press-05-27-20 daily 0.75 2020-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1590593191976-H88U69U37JKUS4OG9OTO/JPsot-05-27-20.jpg Degel Menashe provides COVID-19 relief for India’s B’nei Menashe https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/press063020 daily 0.75 2020-07-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1593706556494-64UIR9J4KG9DNLLN5151/JWeekly-06-20.jpg SAN founder Bryan Schwartz has been raising funds to feed impoverished Jews in India https://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/projects-old daily 0.75 2024-06-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1459970986443-2FYUFFAT6ACOJNTDUOD3/image-asset.jpeg Projects (OLD) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/551c976be4b06a2886ea386f/1442508101652-LFE7265I3L84DG51143O/projects Projects (OLD)