Ben-Hur and Marcia W from Rio de Janeiro

My name is Ben-Hur, I am married to Marcia and father of Felipe. Even though we did not attend the Jewish community, due to the long distance, from a young age our parents gave us the burning desire to return to Israel.
Our story is that we started working early to help around the house, which is why we didn't develop much in our studies, which was reflected in our married life and as parents. Having studied only until high school, my wife and I never managed to work in good or big companies and we ended up doing temporary jobs.

Together with what we earned, we barely covered our household expenses. We always used public services such as education and health. We almost never had leisure, and with that we developed a sedentary lifestyle, overweight and diseases came: depression, hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol.

Without much direction, we were motivated by my brother, who had made aliyah, to do the same. Because in a short time in Israel he had already settled down and adapted with his family.

We started the process, when we were faced with the expenses we would incur with documentation and became frustrated. That was when my brother told us that he was also helped by Ezra Brasil.

When we contacted Ezra, we were treated by the Ezra Brasil representative as if he were our social worker. Ezra paid for our Brazilian and Israeli passports, as we were considered children of Israelis by the Ministry of the Interior, and therefore, in addition to sending documentation to the Jewish Agency, we sent it to the Consulate as well. Ezra paid for all the sworn translations, photos, they even helped us pay rent, as well as bringing us a basic food basket every week. When we had an interview at the Jewish Agency and the Consulate, we were also helped financially. They even took us with our luggage to the airport on the day of our travel to Israel.

We have no words to thank Ezra's supporters for everything they did for our family, during the period when we were most needy and deprived. We were able to fulfill our dream of living and working in a country where our parents also dreamed of returning, but were unable to. We dream of having security, live with dignity and justice. And being able to offer the same to our son. We hope that this work to support families like ours continues to be carried out throughout Brazil and the world.