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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.

Asked how it feels to be a nonagenarian Israel Defense Forces reservist in action, Ezra Yakhin told JNS that “it is very important for us to fight for our country. I feel excellent.”
The Jewish community there has diverse roots, including South African and Israeli ex-pats working in a variety of professions.
The Jewish population of Vlore totaled approximately 2,600 in the 1500s, when the city was a trade hub. Today, the figure has dwindled to 50-100 Albanian-born Jews.
“When you’re 22 and the prime minister offers you a job, you don’t say no,” Naftali told JNS.
“There are so many different groups in Africa associated with Judaism and the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Ari Greenspan, a volunteer for the conference’s organizer, Kulanu.
Over time, the genealogist’s recording of his own family tree branched off, and he uncovered information on the entire Irish-Jewish community. The records span over 70,000 individual names.
“The anger has been building up for 43 years. People are getting more and more frustrated by the minute,” said Sayeh Saadet, who is Jewish and grew up in Iran during the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Marking its 25th anniversary, the Manhattan institution seeks to engage with the second and third generations of survivors.
Arrested in 1944 for making bombs, Ornan was detained in British prison camps in Eritrea, Sudan and Kenya until Israel achieved independence.