The next time you visit the Indonesian island of North Sulawesi pay attention to the large structure at the top of a hill overlooking the capital city of Manado. No it’s not a mirage. It’s a giant menorah twenty-five meters tall — smack in the middle of a tropical wilderness in the world’s largest Muslim state.

Is it possible that some invisible Jewish spark is hiding in the depths of the jungle?

Amazingly the answer to that question is — yes.

The story behind the menorah in the jungle is the story of the mixed identity and the unfortunate history of the Jews of Manado but it is also to no lesser degree the tale of an Indonesian youth who happened to discover his Jewish roots and consequently set himself an ambitious goal: to restore an active Jewish community to the island fifty years after it disappeared in the depths of the jungle.

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