בְנֵי־לֹ֣וט
NEW on our blog: Regine Guevara, a Filipino conversio, discovers her long-lost Jewish roots https://t.co/j3zlQAV9uZ— (((JewishCurrents))) (@JewishCurrents) June 30, 2017
"The aim of religion is to produce humans who are beautiful - in emotions and thoughts." -Osman Nuri Topbas @JihadiJew @hamzayusuf— Regine Guevara (@activistinstyle) May 17, 2016
Getting ready for Rosh Hashanah, I presume? L'Shavua Tov to you and to all my Jewish friends. Happy New Year! https://t.co/TSlTG5CG9v— Donald Dunlap (@PinoyDances) Setyembre 29, 2016
President Duterte arrives at the Jewish Association of the Philippines @inquirerdotnet pic.twitter.com/88RxuetuWi— Erika Sauler (@erikaINQ) Oktubre 4, 2016
Happy #RoshHashanah! Swing by our HAUS to celebrate the new year w/ a hamentash... or two ...or three 😝 pic.twitter.com/x6dfbxNt5E— Coolhaus (@COOLHAUS) Setyembre 13, 2016
Free all the gay-Jewish-albino-Filipino-cis gendered-cross dressing-lactose intolerant rappers out there #youknowwhoyouare— Free Society (@FreeSocietyplz) Hulyo 1, 2014
@JamesFrancoTV It's a Gay Jewish Filipino Wedding, you have to come!— Yvonne de Salle (@YvonnedeSalle) Oktubre 14, 2013
Attending a Jewish-Filipino Catholic gay wedding tomorrow! Currently rehearsing it in an Italian restaurant!— very girl (@SISISIDSISIS1) Mayo 9, 2014
The next Sodom and Gomorrah 👉 PHILIPPINES 😒😒😒😣😣😣— AnakNiKin Skywalker (@elphabaxoz) Hunyo 28, 2015
“Entrepreneurship, you gotta be a little cray cray for it.” - @COOLHAUS. Listen here --> https://t.co/qSX0SGtId0 pic.twitter.com/2Qoi6znnqG— Mash-Up Americans (@mashupamerican) Agosto 17, 2016
Happy #BlackCatAppreciationDay! Our Events Wiz @bethbranches is treating Heath & Kirra to BFF cat food. You? pic.twitter.com/tf5rAzhEGb— Coolhaus (@COOLHAUS) Agosto 18, 2016
.@mashupamerican talks immigrant families, entrepreneurship & coming out w/ the Pinay/Jewish founders of @coolhaus 🍨 https://t.co/gaf5I7bAzo— Filipino Kitchen (@filipinokitchen) Agosto 17, 2016
Judy Maltz: Using the special Yemenite chant he learned decades ago as a young boy, Moshe Hizmi recites the Haftara portion that follows the weekly Torah reading, as a hush falls over Beit Daniel this Shabbat. And in the chair behind him sits his proud wife – a Filipino convert. Wrapped in a colorfully embroidered prayer shawl, Rina, as she is now known, follows the reading diligently from her own prayer book. “It’s because of her that I’ve come back to Judaism,” concedes Moshe over the Kiddush lunch that follows the service.
Moshe and Rina are one of about half a dozen middle-aged couples at this Tel Aviv synagogue who share an unusual profile: The women are all Filipinos who converted to Judaism through the Reform movement, and their husbands or partners are native-born Israelis who grew up in Orthodox or traditional homes, but ultimately abandoned religious practice, only to return to it under the influence of their Jewish-by-choice wives.
“I preferred Reform Judaism because it’s modern, the women sit with the men, and you can dress normally,” says Sigal Shimshi
As is the case with most of these couples, this is chapter two for Sigal and Chanoch. She has three children from a previous marriage, and he has two. Like all these Filipino women, Sigal came to Israel to work as a caregiver. Six years into her stay in the country, she met Chanoch, who was introduced to her through a common friend. “I had put the word out that I was interested in meeting a Filipino woman,” recounts Chanoch. “I guess my gut instinct told me this would be a good thing for me, and a friend gave me her number.”
They’ve been together for eight years, and last year Sigal completed her conversion to Judaism. “She’s by now more religious than me,” boasts Chanoch. “You should see her. She won’t leave the house Friday night without lighting candles.”
He and Sigal attend services regularly at Beit Daniel on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. Together with the other mixed Filipino-Israeli couples, they have Shabbat dinners almost every week. “We have a WhatsApp group so that the women can coordinate who’s bringing what,” explains Sigal. “We leave the men out of that.”
Moshe and Rina Hizmi, who converted two years ago, met at a Tel Aviv nightclub and have been married for almost eight years. He has two children from a previous marriage, and she has one.
Moshe, who was raised in a traditional home, was completely non-observant by the time the two of them met. That is why Rina initially didn't tell him when she first ventured into Beit Daniel.
“We had been together for quite a few years at that point,” she recounts, “and we’d always go to his family for Rosh Hashanah and for Passover, but I never understood what was going on. That got me thinking about converting, and a friend of mine recommended the Reform movement.”
After attending Shabbat services on her own a few times, Rina suggested that Moshe join her. He was initially reluctant, as he recalls. “What have I got to do with the Reform movement?” was his response.
But deep down, he admits, he was quite moved. “It made me happy that she wanted to become Jewish,” he says.
His wife’s successful integration into Israeli society, observes her proud husband, goes beyond her smooth transition to Judaism.
“She knows how to cook up a mean Yemenite meat soup,” he boasts.
Shanah tovah! Happy Jew Year!
— Primrose MK (@PrimroseMK) September 25, 2014
L'shana tova. Happy new year. Wishing you all a sweet one!
— Ginger B (@FilipinoJewMix) September 24, 2014
Here I am in the Philippines, after de-planing (read: getting off the plane – my new favourite Filipino phrase makes me giggle every time!) in Manila almost a month ago as the Philippines Coordinator for JDC, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. http://www.jdc.org/where-we-work/asia/philippines-relief
I am lucky enough to be one of 20 Jewish Service Corps Fellows this year, who are placed all over the world working with JDC. Each role is unique and the work in Argentina differs to the work in Turkey or the work in Ethiopia. I recommend checking out other blogs here: http://jdcentwine.org/jsc
This year I will be based in Manila and working with partner organisations all over the Philippines to assist in the recovery effort after the destruction of Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.
However, a word I’ve heard repeatedly here is ‘resilience’; the Filipino strength, integrity and resilience remains.
It has truly been an honour to be here on behalf of JDC and represent the Jewish community in assisting the recovery in any way we can. I’m looking forward to learning more throughout my year and hopefully to share with you!
I will be spending my first Filipino Rosh Hashana this week with the small but vibrant Jewish community based in Manila. More about this wonderful community in a future blog…
Shana Tova
Hannah
Jacob Wirtschafter: “We come every Friday and feel like we are part of the congregation,” said Jennifer Yehuda, 33, who came to Israel in 1998 from Cavite, a town nine miles south of Manila, the Philippines. “These are warm and accepting people who make it possible for us to come here as foreigners and make us feel like we are at home.”
“The Orthodox rabbis want to check that you have separate sinks and dishes for meat and dairy,” said Vittorio Ishak, who joins Marlene, his Filipino-born wife, at the synagogue’s weekly conversion course. “Here the rabbi wants to check that you understand the meaning behind the prayers and customs.”
Last year, Beit Daniel certified 135 of the 200 conversions performed in Israel by the Reform movement. About one-third of these new Jews are of Filipino origin.
While those from the former Soviet Union states still constitute about half of all candidates for conversion, Filipinos have emerged as the second largest ethnic community in the conversion cohort at Beit Daniel.
As Southeast Asians in a country where most immigrants are of European and Middle Eastern descent, the Filipinos are a highly visible new element in an increasingly diverse Reform Jewish community in Israel, which also includes gay couples.
“It is understandable that many of the Filipinos are participating in their services,” said Professor Zvi Zohar, a scholar at the Center for Halacha, at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. “They come from a country where people take their religion seriously.”
Bnei Lot are of an ancient origin. In the migratory tradition of Ruth begun more than two millennia ago, a remnant of David and Solomon migrated into Maritime Southeast Asia which comprises what is now Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, and Singapore, as well as Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, with a sizeable minority of Malays migrating back to their tribal allotments in Sephardic Judah, besides Terrestrial and Figurative Jordan.
