Piath Aguar learned about the “Chosen People” when she was a child in Bible school. But for a girl being raised in Sudan, the Jews and Jerusalem were a fairy tale. Until last Passover, when she landed in Israel.

Chanukah is almost synonymous with oil because of the miracle of the little bit of oil that lit the Temple Menorah for eight days. Oil is the basis of our cooking every single day, and today we are faced with a myriad of choices. Back in biblical times, there was just olive oil.

Yolanda Geller, who’s in her 60s, is the “challah lady” at Adath Israel, Havana’s Orthodox synagogue. Every week, she makes challah for the 25 or 30 people who will eat Shabbat dinner there.

The U.S. prioritizes fighting global anti-Semitism through the State Department post of U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat anti-Semitism.