Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Bolivia
Bolivia: its small Jewish community, and diplomatic relations with the Israeli state broken in 2009, restored in 2019, broken again in 2023 and restored in 2025
Bolivia has a Jewish community of about 500, most of them in La Paz.[1] It has broken off relations with "Israel" twice over its wars in Gaza: under Evo Morales in January 2009 and under Luis Arce in October 2023. Each break was later reversed: the interim government of Jeanine Áñez announced the restoration of relations in November 2019, and the government of Rodrigo Paz restored them in December 2025.[2][3][4]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) says converted Spanish Jews (Marranos) settled in Potosí during the 16th-century mining boom, and that many moved to the more remote Santa Cruz to escape the Inquisition. Russian Jews arrived in 1905, and in 1933 there were 30 Jewish families. With the rise of Nazism the community was "bolstered by an influx of 12,000 German Jewish immigrants"; the mining industrialist Mauricio Hochschild is credited with helping some 9,000 German Jews find refuge. Most of the newcomers moved on to Argentina, Chile, the United States and Uruguay, and of about 5,000 Jews living in Bolivia in the late 1940s, the great majority have since emigrated.[1]
The community today
The WJC cites Sergio DellaPergola's estimate of 500 Jews (1999). There are communities, each with a cemetery, headquarters and synagogue, in La Paz (Orthodox), Cochabamba (Conservative) and Santa Cruz (Reform). There is no Jewish school, but the Cochabamba and Santa Cruz communities run Sunday schools. A Jewish museum opened near La Paz in 2014 with help from the German embassy.[1]
- Círculo Israelita de La Paz: the WJC's Bolivian affiliate.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Unclear. The WJC describes no Zionist bodies or activities in Bolivia.
- Communities of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz: Conservative and Reform congregations.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? No information.
How far is it Zionist? No Zionist organisations are recorded by the WJC; the community's links with "Israel" run through the WJC and the honorary Israeli consulates in La Paz and Santa Cruz that it lists.[1]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Bolivia. The WJC does not mention Chabad in Bolivia.
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
- The Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list dates Bolivia's recognition to January 1950 and records that it severed relations in January 2009.[5] The WJC says the Morales government then declared "Israel" a "terrorist and genocidal state" and cancelled the visa exemption agreement;[1] according to Europa Press, Morales called the Gaza operation of 2008–09 "genocidio" ("genocide") and declared "Israel" a terrorist state only in 2014, during the Gaza war of that year.[2]
- On 28 November 2019 the foreign minister of Áñez's interim government, Karen Longaric, announced that relations would be restored. The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, welcomed it and said the change had become possible after Morales, who "era hostil a Israel" ("was hostile to Israel"), left power; he said his ministry had worked towards it through indirect contacts with Brazil.[2]
- On 31 October 2023 Bolivia broke off relations with "Israel" again, "en repudio y condena a la agresiva y desproporcionada ofensiva militar israelí" ("in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive") in Gaza, a day after President Arce met the Palestinian ambassador.[6] It was the first country in the world to break relations over the war. An Israeli government spokesman said Bolivia was aligning itself with Hamas; Hamas welcomed the decision.[3]
- On 9 December 2025, in Washington, the foreign minister of the Paz government, Fernando Aramayo, and the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, announced the full restoration of relations, with ambassadors to be appointed shortly and a high-level team to plan the reopening of resident embassies.[4]
- On 24 September 2026, meeting Paz and the presidents of Paraguay and Panama in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Benjamin Netanyahu urged them to join the Isaac Accords launched by "Israel" and Argentina.[7]
Arms
SIPRI records no Israeli arms transfers to Bolivia.[8]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Bolivia separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $2.2 million from Bolivia (2024: $2.9 million) and exported goods worth $1.3 million to it (2024: $1.3 million).[9]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics does not list Bolivia separately; it is included under "other countries".[10]
Political interference
UN voting
Bolivia did not vote on the General Assembly's endorsement of the New York Declaration on a two-state solution in September 2025.[11]
Jeffrey Epstein
- Epstein's household manager in Palm Beach from August 2004, Alfredo Rodriguez, was born in La Paz; his CV, in the released files, records that he studied at the Bolivian Air Force Academy in Santa Cruz in 1974–77 and later became a naturalised US citizen.[12] In 2010 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for obstructing justice, after trying to sell for $50,000 a journal that recorded Epstein's activities.[13]
- In May 2013 Epstein wrote to Boris Nikolic that they should introduce "that bolivian tin guy that wants to give one billion to polio". The email does not name him.[14]
- In May 2015 the physicist Lawrence Krauss wrote to Epstein that he had "just got back from bolivia".[15]
- The Bolivian site Contacto Sur reports that Epstein's associate Jean-Luc Brunel came to Bolivia in 2006 to organise Models New Generation Bolivia with the company CINTEL; the article is an opinion piece.[16]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Peru
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Chile
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Paraguay
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 World Jewish Congress, Community in Bolivia (Plurinational State of) worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Bolivia anuncia que restablecerá las relaciones con Israel Europa Press, 28 November 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bolivia rompe relaciones con Israel por "la desproporcionada ofensiva militar" en Gaza y Chile y Colombia llaman a consulta a sus embajadores BBC News Mundo, 31 October 2023.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Bolivia), Israel y Bolivia reanudan una relación estratégica que abre una era de ciencia, cooperación y beneficios mutuos cancilleria.gob.bo, 9 December 2025.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Bolivia), Bolivia rompe relaciones diplomáticas con Israel y llama a cesar los ataques a la Franja de Gaza cancilleria.gob.bo, 31 October 2023.
- ↑ Netanyahu busca extender a Paraguay, Panamá y Bolivia los Acuerdos de Isaac en Latinoamérica RTVE, 25 September 2026.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024.
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Curriculum vitae of Alfredo Rodriguez (fax header dated 9 November 2006), EFTA01248165, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Epstein's ex-butler sentenced to 18 months for trying to sell billionaire sex offender's journal for $50K Palm Beach Post, 18 June 2010.
- ↑ Email from Jeffrey Epstein to Boris Nikolic, 16 May 2013, EFTA01974492, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 10, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Lawrence Krauss to Jeffrey Epstein, "Re: noam event online", 10 May 2015, EFTA01750061, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 10, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Epstein y Bolivia: Transnacionales, mineras, agencias de modelaje y militares Contacto Sur, 19 February 2026.