Latin American Jews choose to emigrate to Israel in the midst of the pandemic

In a global context of border closures and declining population movements, Israel continues to receive immigrants. They come from Jewish communities abroad and many are from Latin America, whose countries are expecting major economic crises as a result of the pandemic.

Until three weeks ago, Danielle Tarnovsky was one of many inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro who see the numbers of deaths from coronavirus multiply in the city at the same time that the post-pandemic economic horizon is darkening.

Now, however, she finds herself in an immigrant absorption center in the quiet city of Naharia, in northern Israel, where she arrived with her 15-year-old son in search of a better future. "We came to the conclusion that it was no longer possible to live in Brazil, among other things because of the violence, instability and uncertainty about the future," she tells Efe about one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic.

After ten years working as a secretary to a rabbi in the Rio community, she opted to pack her bags and move to Israel, where she had never been and where she plans to work "whatever it takes", since she does not speak English or Hebrew.

Her priority, she adds, was her son's future, as well as the peace of mind of moving to a country where the COVID-19 had little impact and there are almost no restrictions in place anymore, as opposed to Brazil, where she spent two months locked up without even going to the supermarket.

Her case is far from unique, as she is one of thousands of immigrants who have come to Israel since the beginning of the pandemic through the so-called "right of return," by which Jews in the Diaspora can obtain Israeli nationality and settle in the country, where they obtain significant benefits.

According to figures from the Jewish Agency, which coordinates the arrival of these immigrants, between January and April of this year 6,368 people made Israel their new home, 36% less than in the same period in 2019.

Among Latin American countries, however, the decrease was only 1%, with the particularity that Argentina, which has a large Jewish community, increased the number of immigrants by almost 30% compared to last year.

On Wednesday last week, a group of Argentines boarded a LATAM airline flight in a Buenos Aires that was completely paralyzed by the quarantine. After stopping and changing planes in São Paulo and Frankfurt, they were left in Tel Aviv, where COVID-19 already looks more like a bad memory than a latent danger.

Among them was Nicolás Galer, a 27-year-old industrial engineer who worked for a family business and who, aware of the heavy blow that the coronavirus had caused to the Argentine economy, chose to move to Israel, where he had already begun working for a major local company. "I was very surprised at how they received me when I arrived, they were really waiting for us. As soon as we landed they gave us food and water, the procedures were very quick and in less than two hours we were already at the hotel," he tells Efe from the four-star Dan Panorama in Tel Aviv, which overlooks the Mediterranean and houses many of those who arrive in the country at this time, when a mandatory two-week quarantine still applies to those arriving from abroad.

Nicolas, like the rest of the 'olim' (Jewish immigrants), will be able to access free Hebrew classes, a monthly stipend of more than 600 euros for the first six months and important tax exemptions.

Another Argentinean on that flight was Mark Mysler, a 19-year-old who decided to move to Israel for a very different purpose: to serve in the Army. Although his motivation has an ideological basis and is not linked to the pandemic, the impact of the virus in his country accelerated his move: "Because of how the situation was progressing in Argentina, where the peak of infections is expected in the next few months and it doesn't seem that the situation will improve, I decided, in view of the doubt, to come here now," he told Efe.

Like Nicolas and Mark, many other Argentines requested information in recent weeks from the Jewish Agency, which told Efe that it has recorded an increase of more than 100% in consultations on the procedures for emigrating from Argentina.

In this way, the State of Israel, which since its creation in 1948 has received Jews from all over the world and in the most diverse circumstances, becomes once again a seductive alternative for the communities of some of the countries most affected by the pandemic.