Holocaust and Communist persecution to stay in Israel, despite an upsurge of violence there.
"I can not imagine that people who have their families in Israel, go back to the countries where they suffered under the Holocaust," said Erno Lazarovits, Foreign Relations Director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary.
Lazarovits, a Holocaust survivor, told BosNewsLife that he would like to encourage all people of Israel to stay in the Holy Land. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish people from former Soviet satellite states, many of them from Russia, are believed to have arrived in Israel since the collapse of Communism in 1989.
"My sister and other relatives have left their countries because of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust," he said. "My sister lives in a Jerusalem district by Palestinians and (other) Arabs and so on."
NEW WAVE
Lazarovits spoke as news emerged Tuesday, April 9, that Central and Eastern Europe is experiencing a new wave of interest in investments amid indications that Jewish families are planning to return from Israel.
The Warsaw Business Journal, a respected English language weekly, quoted real estate officials as saying that at least one orthodox Jewish group sought residential opportunities in major Polish cities, including Krakow.
"They wanted either to buy out some mansions or develop new housing settlements for Jewish families, which may flee from the Middle East conflict," said Jakub Pszczoa of the development department at Krakow’s city hall. In 2001, 43,476 Israelis applied for temporary residence in Poland and 34 for permanent residence, said the Warsaw Business Journal, citing Polish government officials.
BIGGEST INVESTOR
Israel was the 25th-biggest investor in Poland as of 2000, with $83.4 million in the country and another $20 million planned, the weekly said quoting the Polish Agency for Foreign Investment (PAIZ). In addition other countries have noticed a dramatic surge in visa applications from individual Israeli citizens and potential investors.
"The number of Israelis applying for Czech visas has doubled annually every year for the past three years with a particular increase during the last three months," Ivana Zuntova, Czech consul in Tel Aviv told the Warsaw Business Journal.
Two-thirds of the recent applicants are said to be Jews who emigrated from Russia over the last decade, among them many who do not remember the Holocaust.
HUNGARY
"I am closely in touch with many Israeli people who wish to invest in Hungary," said Georgette Avrush, managing director of Israeli-owned Sabor. "I found that since September 11 and the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, more people are seeking investment opportunities outside Israel, because the economy has suffered from the war conflict."
However Hungarian Jewish representative Lazarovits points out that "not only from Israel big supermarkets" and other companies arrive in post-Communist Hungary.
Yet, Moty Banyas, managing director for Israeli-owned Marlaz Infrastructure Co., told the Warsaw Business Journal that Israeli investments in Hungary is steadily increasing.
INTIFADA
"Since the intifada has started, Israel is not really a good place to invest," he said. "Hungary and Central Europe have been popular investment location for many years now, but since (the attacks in the United States on) September. 11, the volume has been slowly increasing," Banyas added.
Yet, Lazarovits believes that most people will stay and that more people will continue to arrive in Israel, in search of a new life. "I would like to ask you: Any people who are in danger for a moment will they leave their country? No they will stay, as they have their parents and grandparents there…"
