By IsraelNationalNews.com
A new poll has found that a majority of Israelis believe the government should actively assist descendants of Spanish Marranos seeking to return to Judaism.
The survey, commissioned by the Jerusalem-based Amishav organization, which reaches out to
Michael Freund, director of Amishav and an Arutz-7 radio and television host, said he was pleased by the findings. "We wanted to gauge what the Israeli public thinks about reaching out to the descendants of Spanish Jewry who were forcibly converted over 500 years ago. The results show that Israelis, by more than a 2 to 1 margin, want to see greater efforts made to restore them to the Jewish people."
As part of its outreach work, Amishav runs a Spanish-language conversion and return institute in Jerusalem, where some 50 students, many of them descendants of Marranos, study annually. Upon completion of the course, graduates undergo formal conversion by Israel's Chief Rabbinate.