Despite the crises in Israel, Venezuela, and the former Soviet Union, the skies have been filled with Fellowship Freedom Flights—some carrying olim from disaster and danger zones that have become too dangerous to call home, while others bring Jews who are fulfilling a lifelong dream of returning to Israel. This past week, The Fellowship helped 62 olim make aliyah to their biblical homeland from eight countries: Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, France, Venezuela, Georgia, and Argentina. Fellowship staff also reconnected with olim previously assisted by The Fellowship, including lone soldier Ilan from Colombia.
The Fellowship helped Ilan make aliyah last year when he was 19 years old. He was raised in a small but close-knit Jewish community with Jewish schools and a couple of synagogues. Jews in Colombia are often taught about their deep connection to Israel, and Ilan grew up feeling that bond. His great-grandparents were Holocaust survivors who settled in Colombia, and he was raised hearing how important it was for the Jewish people to have a homeland. For Ilan, making aliyah was the ultimate way to strengthen that connection and fulfill that conviction.
But Illan says that that was not the only reason. “Another factor was the rise in anti-Semitism that I see all over the world, and especially in Colombia,” he tells us. “I know several people from my generation in Colombia who are thinking about making aliyah as well. As the future in Colombia seems challenging, it is difficult to think of starting a Jewish family in such a tiny community.”
Ilan first connected with The Fellowship through a recommendation from his aunt. During the war against Hamas in Gaza, airfare to Israel was expensive and flight restrictions made travel more difficult. Nevertheless, The Fellowship helped him navigate the aliyah process and reduce the financial burden. After spending a year in an absorption center in northern Israel and studying Hebrew, Ilan is scheduled to enlist in the IDF next month. Although he is far from his parents, he says thanks to Fellowship friends, he won’t feel alone as a lone soldier.
“I feel safe here and I am hopeful about the future, even though we live in a complicated area. Ever since arriving, my feeling of belonging to the Jewish people and my connection to the Land of Israel has simply gotten stronger,” he said.
Illan also said he hopes to continue his biology studies one day and eventually start a family.
“Deliver Israel, O God, from all their troubles!” (Psalm 25:22).
