Category Archives: Videos

Past Events, Videos

VIDEO: Kulanu Canada and Kulanu US present “The Past and Current Story of the Jews of Indonesia”

March 2 – 2023

On March 2, 2023, special guest Yaakov Baruch, Leader of the Indonesian Jewish Community presented as fascinting history of the Jews in Indonesia. Yaakov Baruch was born in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, and grew up in Manado. He learned of his maternal Jewish mother’s background while a youth, and began to research his Dutch Jewish roots while in college. Yaakov visited Jewish communities in Singapore and Israel, Europe and America and then chose more in-depth study of Judaism.

In 2000, Yaakov established a synagogue community in Manado and inaugurated the synagogue in 2004, which was attended by Israel TV Channel 10. While there were Jews in Indonesia with Iraqi and Dutch roots, those communities which had existed in other parts of the country no longer exist. In 2019, the Tondano community decided to change its Synagogue “minhag” to that of the Western Sephardic or Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities. The Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue was consecrated in 2022.

Resources, Videos

VIDEO: Hannukah Celebrations on the island of Majorca in Spain

Video

Watch the recent Hanukkah celebrations in Palma on the island of Majorca, in Spain.

The event was organized by Limud Mallorca (https://limudmallorca.com), in collaboration with The Jewish Community of the Balearic Islands (https://www.cjib.es/en/home), Jewish Majorca (https://jewishmajorca.com), and the Instituto de Relaciones Culturales Baleares-Israel (http://baleares-israel.blogspot.com).

News, Top, Videos

Sub-Saharan Jewish communities meet in Abidjan

December 12, 2022

Representatives of Jewish communities in Sub-Saharan Africa gathered last weekend in Ivory Coast to create an umbrella religious organisation for the region.

During a week of activities in Abidjan, the attendees learnt about Jewish practices, such as “kosher” slaughter and burial practices.

“The purpose of this meeting is to bring together all of the emerging Jewish communities that are developing and growing throughout Africa. For example, Nigeria has over 80 orthodox synagogues and it’s growing. And we find this in many countries across Africa. They’ve never met each other. (…) We spent a week together learning and studying the Bible, the Torah, the Jewish traditions and the Jewish law”, explained Arieh Greenspan, co-organizer of the conference.

The event was organized by a Jewish non-profit organization, Kulanu, with the aim of reuniting emerging Jewish communities in Africa.

“They understand that Judaism in Sub-Saharan Africa is sometimes a new phenomenon. Though some believe they are descendants of lost tribes or Israelite tribes in the Bible. Some have found Judaism new. And this group of combined people are practising Judaism, living Jewish lives, and for the first time ever got together to create an alliance”, added Bonita Sussman, known as Rabbanit, president of Kulanu.

On the final day, ahead of the Hannukah celebrations, the group planned to consecrate a new synagogue with the laying of a cornerstone.