In their way back to their roots. His name,Ben Avraham,seems to be very appropriate. He,more than everyone else that has never suffered what he and his ancestors suffered,can understand and correctly identify the voices and the calls of those souls yearning to return,and be truly able not to confound cheaters to Jews,driving the truly ones back to their spiritual home. This is beautiful!

prosecutions people still kept their cultur by giving their back to paganism, moi bien Amigo, go to Israel, finally home after all these years.

It is hard not to feel sad for oneself, for losing such a wonerful and well loved member of our community for his duration overseas. However, compensation is had knowing what an incredible blessing our lost Jewish brethren will be gaining.

so does this ability to identify "jewish souls" a born-with thing or is it learned? or is it a special "feeling" one gets when they come in contact with the jewish neshamah? maybe it's a portable device that can be recharged by plugging it into the wall, which only can be operated by a card-carrying jew? do tell.

All Orthodox converts take on the name ben Avraham when they becone Jews.

that may be that 'nutzarim' thing they got going there in ra'anana. they're, you know, a little, um, different.

There are many hidden Jewish souls in the Hispanic world. Yhey are in increasing numbers coming out of their hidden places to reclaim ther identities. This is a story that has been off the radar screen for Jews as well. Sveral years ago while visiting Puerto Rico during Xmas holiday, I had the unusual experiece of seeing Mogan Dovids displaid on rooftops in mountain towns right next to neighbors Xmas lights. The mountain towns of Puerto Rico are remote from the cities and are not the typical places for tourists or immigrants.

I didn't know that.Thanks for the information. In another thought,I don't understand this case as a proper conversion.I think in these cases a conversion is performed "just in case"to avoid a mistake,but I believe that these are already Jewish souls, comming back. A convert is something different.A convert is a gentile who desires to join the Jewish people and is decided to follow our laws and people.It is different. We are commanded to treat a convert(an orthodox one )the same way we treat fellow Jews. #10 I used to have a piece of land in the countryside of São Paulo and I had a neighbor whose name was Oliveira(what means Olive-Zeitim)and Fonseca,what is a portuguese name considered a Jewish name used by Portugueses hidding from Inquisition,according to researches in this camp. This man is a very simple man,grown in the land and without any of the sophisticated habits of bigger cities. It is interesting to note his intelligent and deep eyes,his many children,his hability in doing business with cattle,making him an outstanding business man in that middle ...well,for me,he is Jew.It is interesting.I might be wrong,but I still have this feeling about a man hid in a remote montain of Brasil,who-I wonder-must wonder about his own origins...

And yet about the countryside of Brasil: In the town to where this piece of land I had belongs,there was an ex mayor and his wife and his 3 grown children. One of his children is an assassin who escaped prison due to tricks of his father in power;the other enmads all neighbors with his extremelly high sound comming from his players and who doesn't care nor respect others because he is a very rude and gross son of the "important"ex mayor...well..a very bad family and people. And these ones,if you see ,you identify with arabs-their features,their behavior,their traits of personality.There comes very often some arabs to visit them ,indeed. One of the reasons I quit such place,after my first and fundamental plan that is to get rid of my ties in Brasil and be able to definitively move to Israel,was these king of people running towns in Brasil:arabs like,or actually arabs-horrible people!

I am no expert in this, but have spent alot of time reading through many sources about " the secret(hidden) Jews" from the Spanish diaspora. Mostly I have learned that many who went to the colonies (Spanish) looked for places far removed from authority like mountainous areas that had few neighbors or churches. The other aspect was hiding in plain sight with ultra christian names to counter suspicion like De La Cruz oe De Jesus and the like. Also many Hispanic people feeling the pull of their ancestors tell of family practices that don't seem as christian as their neighbors like lighting candles on fridays with their curtains drawn and pictures of Jesus turned to the wall. Some have been told by their grandparents before death that they have Jewish blood. My wife is Puerto Rican(not Jewish). We were on a tour bus in Yosemite Park when a group of people got on talking rapidly and looking and sounding Israeli. As they got closer to us my wife said,"Nope they're Puerto Rican". She grew up in NYC and said that the first Cuban she ever met was a jewish girl. Some of the pirates of the carribean were Jewish privateers looking to raid Spanish shipping as a retaliation for their expulsion and the consequenses of the Inquisition. Go online and read as much as you can is all I can tell you. It is most facinating. For me the stories of those reconnecting to their roots are the best of all. Shalom!