From Israel with love–the ties that bind

NOT too many people know that our special relations with the Jewish people began even before the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. It started in the late 1930s and early 1940s just before World War II when the Jews left Germany and Austria and fled to the Philippines. We welcomed them with open arms by our warm hospitality and accepted them with our Christian humanity.

The information and insight was shared with invited members of media by Deputy Director-General Mark Sofer, head of the Asia-Pacific Division of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was in town last week for top-level meetings with our Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). He spoke with perspicacity of the great ties that bind – the special relationship between the Filipinos and the Jewish people!