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Israela

A New Path Home

An interview with Jaim Nadel

For 32 years Shalom Vach’s Aliyah organization Alyah de Groupe has been supporting thousands of fam-
ilies making Aliyah from France. 3 years ago, his son Col. Golan Vach – who heads the IDF’s famed
National Rescue Unit of the Home Front Command – opened an extension organization Israela.
Israela, together with World Mizrachi, has taken the decades of experience in France and adapted it and offered it to
families making Aliyah from South America. Israela, now in its third year of bringing groups of families on Aliyah –
with the encouragement of the Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption, and partnering with the Jewish Agency and Nefesh
b’Nefesh – is now expanding its support system into North America, England, South Africa and Australia, with the idea of
having two groups of families making Aliyah this summer; an English-speaking group and a Spanish-speaking group.
World Mizrachi is proud to partner with Israela and to support family Aliyah
with a formula that works – with a 98% success rate.
This interview with Jaim Nadel, one of the first families to make Aliyah with Israela, is a glimpse into the secret of our success.

Tell us about your life’s journey. Was making Aliyah easy from your perspective?
My name is Jaim Nadel; I was born in Argentina in 1982 to a By the end of 2021, we decided we needed to get to Israel by
traditionalist family. When I was about bar mitzvah age, our entire August 2022, so our children could start the school year on time.
family became ba’alei teshuva. I began studying in a Religious Filling out the Jewish Agency paperwork wasn’t difficult, but it
Zionist school and participated in Bnei Akiva activities. In Bnei was tedious, with many details and back-and-forth communica-
Akiva, I served as a chanich, madrich, rosh snif, rosh machanot, and tions until Pesach 2022. Although the date loomed in our minds,
mazkir. It was a great and beautiful stage of life. Unfortunately, with less than five months left, we had no concrete plans. We
I couldn’t undergo hachshara (agricultural training programs) didn’t know where we wanted to live, we had many questions,
or Aliyah to join the IDF. But the idea of Aliyah always lingered and very few answers.
in my mind.
I pursued a degree in public relations, got married, and had three How did you get to know Israela?
children. Today, my children are 16, 13, and 10 years old. In 2008, When we were stuck during Chol Hamoed Pesach, an Israeli
I worked in the youth department of the Madrid community, shaliach who taught in the school said to me, “Do you know about
and later, we returned to Argentina. In 2018, our entire family Israela? It helps with Aliyah, making it easier.” I said, “Okay, give
moved to Costa Rica to work in the Jewish community there. me the contact, and I'll call.” I spoke to Rabbi Tzvi Elon, whom
I knew from when he was a shaliach in Uruguay. He explained
the project, the assistance provided, the advantages of going as
How did you decide to make Aliyah?
a group, and so on. After that phone conversation, I called my
As the pandemic wound down around mid-2021, my wife and I wife and said, “My love, we have our Aliyah plan, and it’s perfect,”
began exploring options to leave Costa Rica. Returning to Argen- because that’s how I felt. And with hindsight, I know we made
tina was not an option, and we considered Panama or Mexico, the right choice.
Spanish-speaking countries with communities dedicated to
Torah and mitzvot. However, my wife uttered a decisive phrase:
“I want to stop moving; I want to settle in a place and feel at How did everything unfold?
home.” That’s when I replied, “That can only be in one place – In a Zoom meeting, we met other families – all young families
in Eretz Yisrael.” We calmly started the process with the Jewish with school-age children, sharing a Latin culture and common
Agency and began filling out the paperwork. goals, especially raising our children in a safe spiritual and

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