A few months ago Michel told me he was making Aliyah. Now he’s been in Ra’anana Absorption Center for over two months. Here’s how he’s been getting on:

”OK, I'm living in the Merkaz Klita (Absorption Center) in Raanana. Studying in
the Ulpan in the morning, (third grade) and working as a guard in a supermarket in the afternoons. At night I do my journalism job
translating news (the same as I did back in Brazil). As you
see, I'm already connected to the net.

Well, I must say that I feel safer here than in Sao Paulo. I
can see all the problems around -- economic, security etc --
but the food is good and the nice people are reeeaaally nice
(let's not talk about those that are not nice, you know what
I mean).

I have no family here (well, some, but not so close) and
some really close friends (we grew up together), so the process
is easier.

There are many Argentinians in the Merkaz, some Turkish,
Uruguaians and even Swedish. Some came because of their bad economic
situation, some came to try, some came for Zionism -- like me --
although nobody seems to believe that such thing still exist. (I do, I do, Michel – I.J.)

The place is OK, the state helps a lot and let's
see...it's nice to be here!

Until know everything is fine, the routine is going on
(supermarket, school, job, going out sometimes)”.

This year 5960 new immigrants came to Israel from Argentina. I don’t know how many came from Brazil but they include Rinat and Michel, and we are very fortunate to have them.