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Avi Kumar

Avi Kumar

Avi Kumar is a Sri Lanka native based in the United Arab Emirates who writes on global Jewish topics and the Holocaust and speaks 11 languages.

Members of the tribe, who claim descent from the biblical Menashe, told JNS what it has been like taking refuge in military camps.
Emirati students greeted visiting Jewish colleagues from New York in Hebrew.
“Jews have been persecuted for centuries, and they showed a lot of solidarity and compassion as they were able to relate to us,” said Jamileh Naso, president of the Canadian Yazidi Association.
The United Arab Emirates serves as a “bridge” forging bilateral ties between Israel and Africa, says former minister Ayoob Kara.
“Long before the Holocaust, we said, ‘Next year in Jerusalem’ every year during the Passover seder,” said Itzik Mizrachi, 90.
David Caspi, 84, recalled the experience in two wide-ranging interviews with JNS.
Jewish parallels abound in the show that just finished its third season.
The new Jewish house of worship is part of an interfaith complex that includes a mosque and a church.
The South African Jew conducted important research that helped preserve the memory of foreign Machal fighters.
The late Mountain Jew cared for sites and co-religionists from the Mizrahi tradition.
One of the country’s oldest synagogues, Dublin Hebrew Congregation, is up for sale.
Fifteen years after the country declared independence, its Jews are optimistic about their future in one of the world’s newest states.