North Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the Minahasa Peninsula of the island of Sulawesi, south of the Philippines and southeast of Sabah, Malaysia. It borders the Philippine province of Davao Occidental and Soccsksargen regions of the Philippines to the north, the Maluku Sea to the east, Gorontalo and Celebes Sea to the west and the Gulf of Tomini to the southwest. With the outlying island of Miangas to its north, it is the northernmost island of Indonesia. The province's area is 14,500.28 square kilometres (5,598.59 sq mi), and its population was 2,270,596 according to the 2010 census; this rose to 2,621,923 at the 2020 Census, while the official estimate as at mid 2022 was 2,659,543. North Sulawesi is known as a heaven for divers around the world.
The Minahasans or Minahassa are an indigenous ethnic group from the North Sulawesi province of Indonesia, formerly known as North Celebes. The Minahasa people sometimes refer to themselves as Manado people. Although the Minahasan pre-Christian creation myth entails some form of ethnic unification, before the nineteenth century the Minahasa region was in no way unified. Instead, a number of politically independent groups (walak) existed together, often in a permanent state of conflict.
Manado is the capital city of the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi. It is the second largest city in Sulawesi after Makassar, with the 2020 census giving a population of 451,916, and the official estimates for mid 2022 showing 454,606 inhabitants, distributed over a land area of 157.26 km2. The Manado metropolitan area had a population of 1,365,237 as of mid 2022. The city is situated on the Bay of Manado, and is surrounded by a mountainous area.
The former communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East are traditionally called Baghdadi Jews or Iraqi Jews. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes around the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
Reform Judaism, formally the Movement for Reform Judaism (MRJ) and known as Reform Synagogues of Great Britain until 2005, is one of the two World Union for Progressive Judaism–affiliated denominations in the United Kingdom. Reform is relatively traditional in comparison with its smaller counterpart, Liberal Judaism, though it does not regard Jewish law as binding. As of 2010, it was the second-largest Jewish religious group in the United Kingdom, with 19.4% of synagogue-member households. On 17 April 2023, Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism announced their intention to merge as one single unified progressive Jewish movement. The new movement, which may be called Progressive Judaism, will represent about 30% of British Jewry who are affiliated to synagogues.
Several different religions are practised in Indonesia. Indonesia is officially a presidential republic and a unitary state without an established state religion. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population and the first principle of Indonesia's philosophical foundation, Pancasila, requires its citizens to state the belief in "the one and almighty God". Although, as explained by the Constitutional Court, this first sila of Pancasila is an explicit recognition of divine substances and meant as a principle on how to live together in a religiously diverse society. However, blasphemy is a punishable offence and the Indonesian government has a discriminatory attitude towards its numerous tribal religions, atheist and agnostic citizens. In addition, the Aceh province officially applies Sharia law and is notorious for its discriminatory practices towards religious and sexual minorities. There are also Islamic fundamentalist movements in several parts of the country with overwhelming Muslim majorities.
The history of the Jews in Brazil begins during the settlement of Europeans in the new world. Although only baptized Christians were subject to the Inquisition, Jews started settling in Brazil when the Inquisition reached Portugal, in the 16th century. They arrived in Brazil during the period of Dutch rule, setting up in Recife the first synagogue in the Americas, the Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, as early as 1636. Most of those Jews were Sephardic Jews who had fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal to the religious freedom of the Netherlands.
The history of the Jews in Sudan goes back to a small but vibrant community of Jews who lived there from about 1885 to around 1970. Most of the community left for Israel or Europe after anti-Semitic attacks began to spread against both the Jews in Israel and those still living in Sudan.
Jewish Nicaraguans or Nicaraguan Jews are Nicaraguans of Jewish ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Nicaragua. They are part of the ethnic Jewish diaspora.
A Jewish population has been in Barbados almost continually since 1654.
The history of the Jews in Haiti stretches from the beginning of the European settlement until the modern day.
The Temple Emanuel, also known as Congregation Emanuel, is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 51 Grape Street, in Denver, Colorado, in the United States.
The history of the Jews in the Democratic Republic of the Congo can be traced back to 1907, when the first Jewish immigrants began to arrive in the country. The current Jewish Congolese population is mostly of Sephardi background.
The history of the Jews in Aruba can be traced back to the 16th century, when the first Jewish immigrants began to arrive. The first Jews in Aruba were Sephardi Jewish immigrants from Netherlands and Portugal. The first Jew to settle in Aruba was a Portuguese-Jewish worker for the Dutch West India Company named Moses Solomon Levie Maduro, who arrived in Aruba with his family in 1754.
Most railway lines in Indonesia were constructed during the Dutch colonial rule. After independence in 1945, many lines were abandoned. The current national rail operator, PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero), was founded on 28 September 1945.
The Surabaya Synagogue was a former synagogue in Surabaya, Indonesia. It is generally said to have been the only synagogue in the country during the years it operated, although since then Sha'ar Hashamayim has opened in Sulawesi. The Surabaya Synagogue building was a former private residence purchased by the Israelitische Gemeente Soerabaia congregation in 1948. Unfortunately, due to world events and Indonesian politics, most of the congregation emigrated in the decade after it opened. The building continued to be used by a tiny community and fell into disrepair by the late twentieth century; it was controversially demolished in 2013 despite receiving some recognition as a heritage building.
Sha'ar Hashayamim Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish Synagogue with Sephardi tradition located in Tondano, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, which was founded in 2003 and inaugurated in 2019.
Yaakov Baruch is a leading Rabbi of the Sha'ar Hashamayim Synagogue, located in Tondano, Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi.
Israelitische Gemeente Soerabaia is a Jewish association in Surabaya which was founded in 1923. It was founded by Iraqi Jews, who have historically made up most of its membership. The congregation had what was for years the only synagogue in Indonesia. The congregation was at its largest in the 1930s, when it had around 1000 members; after most of them emigrated by 1960, it has been reduced to a tiny fraction of its former numbers.
