By TIMES OF ISRAEL— The Jewish Agency is preparing to end mass aliya from Ethiopia with two final flights consisting of 400 immigrants on August 28. The Jewish Agency emissary to Ethiopia, Asher Seyum, made the announcement in a brief letter, saying the Jewish Agency will hand over its aid compounds in the Ethiopian city…
“Early Zionist Settlement: First Aliyah” looks at the first wave of Zionist immigrants, who began arriving in 1882. The young idealists who made up this immigration, or aliyah, wanted to pave the way for a national rebirth. As Zeev Dubnow, a member of Bilu, the very first group of Zionist immigrants, wrote: “The ultimate aim…
By GAD LIOR, YNET— Israel’s population has crossed the eight million threshold over Passover, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Thursday. With six million Jews, Israel has become the world’s largest Jewish center. The remainder of the population is comprised of 1.6 million Arabs, 350,000 non-Arab Christians and others, mostly olim or relatives of olim from…
By MICHAEL FREUND, JPOST— Last week, the small and unassuming mikve (ritual bath) in Hod HaSharon witnessed the unfolding of a remarkable scene in the annals of Jewish history. One by one, six young Chinese men, all descendants of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, immersed themselves in the warm and purifying waters before a…
BY MICHAEL FREUND— This past Monday, as the Uzbekistan Airways flight began its descent to Tel Aviv, over 50 pairs of eyes looked out the plane’s windows, anxious to catch a glimpse of their new home. For more than 27 centuries, their ancestors had wandered in exile, clinging to the dream that one day, despite…
By MICHAEL FREUND, JPOST— Today marks the 25th anniversary of one of American Jewry’s finest moments. December 6, 1987, was a brisk, fairly cold Sunday in Washington, the kind of day best spent curled up on a couch watching an exciting afternoon of football. But instead of staying indoors, more than 250,000 American Jews from…
BY TALIA BLOCH, JTA— In 1995, Demetrio Valdez, his wife, Olive, and some of their neighbors in Conjehos County, Colo., started a kosher food co-op. “We wanted to harvest our own meat, but we couldn’t get a good price for it, so we decided to do it kosher to make more money,” said Valdez, 64,…
BY MICHAEL FREUND, JPOST— By all accounts, Israel continues to enjoy widespread support among a large portion of the American public. Despite the hostility shown toward the Jewish state by the current occupant of the White House, sizable majorities of Americans from across the political spectrum continue to value Israel as a reliable ally. And…
BY MICHAEL FREUND, JPOST— On a small island off the coast of Spain, a tragedy that began more than six centuries ago may finally be coming to an end. For the first time since their Jewish ancestors were compelled to convert to Catholicism in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Chuetas of Palma de Mallorca…
BY MICHAEL FREUND— Thousands of kilometers to the east, in the furthest reaches of northeastern India, a long-lost community continues to nourish its age-old dream of returning to its ancient homeland, the land of Israel. The Bnei Menashe, or “sons of Manasseh,” are descendants of one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, which were…