New Israelis Zigzag to Holy Land on Fellowship Freedom Flight

The Fellowship  |  April 1, 2020

While much of the world has come to a halt during the coronavirus crisis, The Fellowship’s good work continues. We continue feeding and caring for the neediest of God’s people. And yes, we continue to bring His children to the Holy Land aboard Fellowship Freedom Flights. JTA’s Marcus M. Gilban writes about the 31 Brazilian Jews who overcame obstacles to become the latest olim (immigrants) to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel):

It took 10 flights, long connections and plenty of uncertainty because of the coronavirus, but a group of 31 Brazilian Jews successfully immigrated to Israel last week.

They landed in Israel on March 26 with the help of the nonprofit International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. For 14 passengers from Rio, the door-to-door journey lasted an exhausting 50 hours.

“Everything seemed to be perfect. We had been planning our immigration for about two years,” Ilana Bandarovsky Burdman said over the phone from her new home in Raanana, the Tel Aviv suburb that is home to the largest Brazilian community in Israel with some 300 families.

The whole group was expected to fly out on March 30, but LATAM Airlines canceled their flight on March 22. After some failed negotiating, their new option became the Israeli carrier El Al’s last emergency flight to bring home Israelis on March 25…