9 Venezuelan converts arrive in Israel to start aliyah process

Nine Venezuelan converts arrive in Israel for the purpose of aliyah after their initial request was denied.

The Venezuelans, five adults and four children, arrived without fanfare on Thursday morning, Haaretz reports.

The Ministry of the Interior, which claimed the Venezuelans’ engagement in Jewish communal life has not been sufficient, denied their request to make aliyah in December.

Under a compromise deal brokered by The Jewish Agency for Israel in the Knesset, the applicants — indigenous Venezuelans who belong to three families and converted to Judaism in 2014 under the auspices of a Conservative rabbinical court — underwent a second conversion described as “symbolic” earlier this week in Bogota, Colombia. They will have to wait nine months to claim citizenship after proving engagement in a Jewish community in Israel, according to the report.

The second conversion was directed by Rabbi Andrew Sacks, director of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, who accompanied them to Israel.

— JTA