Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Paraguay
Paraguay: its small and strongly Zionist Jewish community, the embassy moved to Jerusalem in 2018, moved back the same year and returned in 2024, and close alignment with the Israeli government under Santiago Peña
Paraguay has a Jewish community of about 1,100, which the World Jewish Congress describes as "highly Zionist".[1] President Horacio Cartes moved the Paraguayan embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018; his successor, Mario Abdo Benítez, moved it back four months later, and President Santiago Peña returned it to Jerusalem in December 2024.[2][3][4]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) says Jews began arriving from France, Switzerland and Italy at the end of the 19th century. Families from Argentina settled in Limpio in 1904–05, Sephardim arrived from Ottoman Palestine from around 1908, and Jews from Ukraine and Poland followed in the 1920s. By 1932 there were 120 Jewish families in Asunción. Between 1933 and 1939, it says, between 15,000 and 20,000 Jews from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia used Paraguay's "relatively liberal immigration laws" to escape Nazi-occupied Europe; some only passed through.[1]
The community today
The WJC gives a figure of about 1,100 and cites Sergio DellaPergola's estimate of between 1,000 and 1,600 (2002), concentrated in Asunción. It describes the community as "predominantly religiously traditional and Zionist", and most members as religiously Conservative.[1]
- Consejo Representativo Israelita de Paraguay (CRIP): the representative body and the WJC's Paraguayan affiliate.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Strongly. It represents a community the WJC calls "highly Zionist", and is affiliated to the WJC.
- Unión Hebraica: which the WJC calls "the seat of social, sports, cultural, and religious activities".[1]
- How far is it Zionist? No Zionist activity is described beyond its place in the community.
- Colegio Estado de Israel (State of Israel School): the community's day school, which provides primary and secondary education and is open to non-Jewish pupils.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? It bears the state's name; the WJC gives no detail of its curriculum.
- WIZO and Hanoar Hatzioni: the Zionist women's organisation and the Zionist youth movement, which runs social and sports activities.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Fully, by definition.
- Others: the Hevra Kadisha and cemetery, a Conservative synagogue, the online weekly Hashavua and the Jewish Museum of Paraguay in Asunción. The WJC notes that kosher meat is produced domestically "for export to Israel".[1]
How far is it Zionist? The WJC describes the community as highly Zionist, and its formal structure includes WIZO and a Zionist youth movement.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Paraguay. The WJC lists a Beit Chabad in Asunción, and says that those who attend it are not necessarily Orthodox.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
- The Israeli foreign ministry dates Paraguay's recognition to January 1949; in 2011 it had no resident embassy in Asunción.[5] The WJC says the Israeli embassy closed in 2002 because of budget cuts and reopened in July 2015, while Paraguay's embassy in "Israel" closed in 2005 and reopened in 2013. In July 2016 Cartes made the first official visit to "Israel" by a Paraguayan president.[1]
- Jerusalem embassy, 2018. On 21 May 2018 Cartes and Benjamin Netanyahu opened Paraguay's embassy in Jerusalem, in the Malha Technology Park, in the building where Guatemala had opened its embassy the previous Wednesday. Paraguay was the third country to move, after the United States and Guatemala. Cartes went ahead despite criticism at home.[6] Cartes said: "No soy amigo de posiciones tibias o ambiguas" ("I am no friend of lukewarm or ambiguous positions").[2]
- Reversal, 2018. On 5 September 2018 Abdo's new government announced that the embassy would return to Tel Aviv. The foreign minister, Luis Alberto Castiglioni, called Cartes's decision "unilateral e inconsulta" ("unilateral and taken without consultation") and "hasta visceral" ("even visceral"), and the ministry restated its support for two states, "Israel y Palestina". In response the Israeli foreign ministry announced that "Israel" would close its embassy in Paraguay.[3] The WJC wrongly dates Abdo's taking power, and the move back, to 2019.[1]
- Return to Jerusalem, 2024. On 18 September 2024 "Israel" reopened its embassy in Asunción, after six years, with Peña and the Knesset speaker Amir Ohana present; Peña announced that the Paraguayan embassy would return to Jerusalem in December, "donde siempre debió estar" ("where it always should have been").[7] After addressing the Knesset, Peña reopened the embassy in Jerusalem with Netanyahu on 12 December 2024, saying: "vamos a estar con Israel pase lo que pase" ("we will be with Israel whatever happens"). The foreign ministers signed cooperation agreements on energy, innovation, science and technology.[4]
- Isaac Accords and the ICC, 2026. On 24 September 2026, at the UN General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu met Peña together with the presidents of Panama and Bolivia, and urged them to join the Isaac Accords, launched by "Israel" and Argentina, and the US initiative to withdraw from the "corrupt" International Criminal Court.[8] The Paraguayan presidency's account of the meeting did not mention either request.[9]
- Asunción Journal lists other recent steps: in April 2025 Paraguay extended its terrorist designation of Hamas and Hezbollah to all their structures and designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard; on 24 November 2025 it signed a defence memorandum with "Israel" that includes information exchange, sales of equipment and services, and joint military training; and on 3 March 2026 it filed a declaration of intervention at the International Court of Justice in South Africa's genocide case against "Israel", arguing that events in Gaza do not reach the legal threshold of genocide.[9]
Arms
SIPRI records one Israeli arms transfer to Paraguay: two EL/M-2106NG air search radars, ordered for about $3.5 million in 2011.[10]
Hezbollah and Hamas designations
- By Decree 2307 of 9 August 2019, Abdo's government recognised the designation of ISIS and al-Qaeda as global terrorist organisations, and of the armed wings of Hamas and Hezbollah as international terrorist organisations.[11] The interior minister said it would mean tighter banking and currency controls; ABC Color reported that the United States had wanted Paraguay and Brazil to follow Argentina's lead, and cited intelligence reports that the Brazilian gang Primeiro Comando da Capital launders money in the border area of Alto Paraná for drug traffickers and for Hezbollah.[12]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Paraguay separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $164.3 million from Paraguay (2024: $117.6 million) and exported goods worth $11.2 million to it (2024: $3.4 million).[13] Asunción Journal, citing Paraguay's economy ministry, gives different 2024 figures: Paraguayan exports to "Israel" of $165.7 million and imports of $51.2 million, 90.3% of them potassium chloride. It says that between January and August 2026 "Israel" bought 31,014 tonnes of Paraguayan beef worth $256.1 million.[9]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics counts immigrants born in Paraguay as follows:
- 42 in 1952–60;
- 210 in 1961–71;
- 73 in 1972–79;
- 62 in 1980s;
- 42 in 1990s;
- 132 in 2000–2020;
- 18 in 2021;
- 7 in 2022;
- 12 in 2023.[14]
Political interference
UN voting
In September 2025 Paraguay voted against the General Assembly's endorsement of the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[15]
Jeffrey Epstein
- On 25 May 2011 a correspondent whose name is redacted wrote to Epstein: "Trapped since last night at DFW on my way to Paraguay. Just thinking of you. Some ideas to talk about", and asked whether it would be rude to contact the businessman Teddy Forstmann. Epstein replied: "ready when you are".[16] Paraguayan media reported this as the files' direct reference to Paraguay; the files do not show the purpose of the trip.[17]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Argentina
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Guatemala
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Brazil
Notes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 World Jewish Congress, Community in Paraguay worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Paraguay habilita Embajada en Jerusalén La Nación (Paraguay), 21 May 2018.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Paraguay regresa su embajada en Israel a Tel Aviv tras el polémico trasladado a Jerusalén BBC News Mundo, 5 September 2018.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Paraguay reabre su embajada en Jerusalén y reafirma apoyo incondicional a Israel Agencia IP (Paraguayan state news agency), 12 December 2024.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Cartes inaugura Embajada en Jerusalén pese a críticas internas Última Hora, 21 May 2018.
- ↑ Israel reabre su embajada en Paraguay: "Hoy es un día de celebración", dice Peña La Nación (Paraguay), 18 September 2024.
- ↑ Netanyahu busca extender a Paraguay, Panamá y Bolivia los Acuerdos de Isaac en Latinoamérica RTVE, 25 September 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Netanyahu pide a Peña sumarse a los Acuerdos de Isaac y dejar la Corte Penal Internacional; el comunicado de Asunción omite ambos pedidos Asunción Journal, 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.
- ↑ El gobierno paraguayo reconoce a Hamas y Hezbollah como organizaciones terroristas NODAL, 21 August 2019.
- ↑ Abdo reconoce a Hezbollah como terrorista y anuncia más controles financieros ABC Color, 19 August 2019.
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ Email to Jeffrey Epstein (sender redacted) and Epstein's reply, "Re: How Africa?", 25 May 2011, EFTA01864454, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 10, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Gustavo Quiroga, Archivos Epstein: correos, censuras y Paraguay RDN, 31 January 2026.