Jorge Paniagua, 42, and his wife Rivka, 40, are preparing to make aliyah this month, along with their five children, ages 7-20. The family currently lives in Lima, Peru, and have lived in Argentina and Chile in the past. “We have had this dream of making aliyah for 12 years, but things kept getting complicated”, Rivka tells The Fellowship. “Because we have lived in different countries, the paperwork was longer, work and family issues got in the way and the years went by. However, we are very happy that we are finally taking this step.”
Peru is home to only about 2,500 Jews, most of whom live in the capital city of Lima. The Paniagua family, who dress in the traditional way of observant religious Jews, have had anti-Semitic experiences both in Peru and Chile. “Sometimes you get offensive comments on the street, stares that make you uncomfortable,” Rivka recalls. “People are not used to seeing a lot of Jews on the streets of Lima.”
“We want to give our children the best possible Jewish education”, Rivka says. “The thing we want most is to live in the Jewish homeland, among our brothers and sisters, to be able to integrate into a Jewish society and to be an active part in developing the country”.
The family plans to live in Jerusalem. Jorge will continue running his businesses in Peru from Israel. Rivka is a chef, and the family holds a long-held dream: opening a kosher Peruvian restaurant in Jerusalem. “I don’t think there are many things like this in Israel”, Rivka says. “Hopefully we have a market for it. I would really like to build bridges among the two cultures and help Israeli people become exposed to Peruvian cuisine. Our cuisine is famous all over the world, and we personally love it, so we would love to be the pioneers of this type of food there.”
Once the family decided to make aliyah, they reached out to Fellowship staff based in Latin America. “Everyone kept recommending The Fellowship”, Rivka explains. “They all said that it was the best way to make aliyah, and now I have no doubt in my mind that they were right. We reached out first when we were living in Chile, and they have always provided us with all the information we needed, and even the emotional support when we were frustrated due to bureaucracy. The staff have been so kind to us. We will always be grateful to the organization and its staff.”
Though they have never been to Israel, the family knows that this is a perilous time to be moving there, amid an ongoing war. “Our friends who are not Jewish are more afraid than us”, Rivka explains. “We have always known what we were signing up for. We are not afraid, and we are sure that better times are coming. Every now and then over the last years, things have happened, and you just can’t let the terrorists cancel your dreams. We are too convinced about wanting to make Israel our home. Our heart is already there, and no war is going to convince us not to do this.”
