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Michael Freund

Michael Freund

Michael Freund, the founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, served as the deputy director of communications under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. An ordained rabbi, he has lived for the past 25 years in Israel.

Long before all the Israeli tourists, Thai and Jewish lives were intertwined.
Hopefully, recent violence against a Chabad center will prove to be a footnote to a long saga.
A unique community has survived for centuries and serves as a bridge to Israel.
From peddlers to power, Jews have been woven into the fabric of the nation’s life.
The Jews helped build Karachi, the country’s capital and largest city, before prejudice finally forced them out.
An ancient community has, in its small way, resurrected itself.
Ancient background matters because it reminds the world of something too often forgotten: Jews lived, traded, prayed and built families across the Arab and Muslim world for centuries.
Few tourists today encounter the extraordinary, tropical story of Alexander Salmon.
Their story underscores a sobering truth: Communities that take generations to build can disappear with startling speed.
The origins of Jewish life date to the late 19th century, when a handful of Sephardic families from Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Yemen settled in Omdurman and Khartoum during the Anglo-Egyptian period.
One is compelled to ask: What exactly does the Communist Party fear from a few hundred people in the city of Kaifeng?
Nearly all of the Nordic country’s Jewish citizens survived World War II, and communal life there was never dismantled.