Israel’s Ministry of Religious Affairs is making a major effort to instruct new immigrants in the ritual and spiritual aspects of Judaism.
It has spent nearly $700,000 on religious books and articles distributed free to immigrants in the last 18 months, according to the National Religious Party’s newspaper, Hatzofeh.
The Bibles, prayerbooks and booklets explaining the Jewish holidays have been printed in Russian and Amharic, the Ethiopian language.
The ministry also provides tefillin, tallesim (prayer shawls), wine goblets and candlesticks to the newcomers for their “spiritual absorption.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
