At the Asian Progressive Union Summit, Hong Kong 2018

[HONG KONG] Welcoming Jews on the Frontiers at the Asian Progressive Jewish Summit

Twenty representatives of six Asian Progressive communities met in Hong Kong in late January for the 2018 Asian Progressive Jewish Summit, and were joined by World Union leaders Carole Sterling, Chair, and Rabbi Daniel H. Freelander, President. Delegates from Shanghai, Singapore, Myanmar, Bali, Tokyo and Hong Kong were joined by Rabbi Fred Morgan, Regional Rabbi […]

In Costa Rica, Bnei Israel's First Synagogue and the Cow who sat on the its doorstep regularly

When Dreams Become Reality: Comunidad B’nei Israel Costa Rica Celebrates 30 Years

In 1984, two kindergarteners from Country Day School in San Jose, Costa Rica (Saul Herckis and Alberto Bonilla) discovered they were Jewish. Their parents, who did not belong to the Centro Israelita, the only synagogue in the country at that time, because they were not Orthodox in their believes or practices, began to meet weekly to celebrate Shabbat. They were soon joined by other families who sought communal prayer and celebration in a more spiritual, and less rigorous, Jewish framework. 

And in those first gatherings, Communidad B’nei Israel of Costa Rica was born.