The saga of frum Israelis stuck in South Africa for a duration of three months finally ended this week with their arrival to Israel.

A month ago, Kikar H’Shabbos publicized the story of the dozens of frum Israelis, including an engaged yeshivah bochur who risked missing his own wedding, stuck in South Africa after secular Israelis were repatriated on a flight back to Israel on Shabbos.

The Israelis, who had been unable to leave South Africa since the coronavirus pandemic began due to a strict nationwide lockdown were so relieved last month when they heard that a rescue flight back to Israel was finally being arranged. But for the frum Israelis, their happiness quickly turned to dismay when they realized that the flight would take off on Friday.

What happened is that when the US embassy heard that the Israelis were arranging a rescue flight they suggested to the Israeli embassy to divide a flight with them which would fly to Ethiopia and from there the Israelis would fly to Israel and the Americans to the US. The problem was that the American flight was leaving on Friday at 8 a.m., was traveling through Capetown and landing in Ethiopia a half-hour after licht benchting time. The Israelis on the flight would have to continue to Israel, landing on Shabbos morning at 4 a.m.

According to Yehoshua, one of the Israelis stuck in South Africa, the Israeli embassy tried to arrange a flight for the frum Israelis as well but could not get permission from the South African government.

Over the past month, Kikar actively applied pressure to assist the frum Israelis to return home and on Monday, they finally arrived back in Israel and immediately entered quarantine.

“We showed up at the Israeli embassy in Pretoria [the capital of South Africa, over an hour from Johannesburg] at 10 a.m. and waited in an endless line,” Yehoshua told Kikar. “The consul had to go over each name one by one and check our suitcases.”

“After that was finished, they gathered us and divided us onto three buses and we traveled to the airport, which is only 15 minutes from where we live [in Johannesburg] but we had to travel there via the embassy [according to South African law] – a trip of about two hours.”

“When we arrived at the airport, we waited at least a half-hour until we could enter, while a dog sniffed all our luggage. We then entered the airport, which was completely empty. All the duty-free shops were hermetically sealed.”

“When we finally thought that the whole nightmare was behind us,” Yehoshua continued, “we realized that we still had to wait at least three hours, until Ethiopian Airlines, the airline we traveled on, unloaded the cargo they brought from Ethiopia, which delayed the flight – after the exhausting day we endured.”

“Tachlis – when we finally boarded the plane, it was roomy, had Wi-Fi and even pretty good food which came from Thailand, with a hechsher that some claimed to be reliable.”

“But none of this was important compared to the moment the airplane landed. It’s impossible to describe the feelings that gripped everyone. We couldn’t believe it. We thank everyone for their help, especially Kikar H’Shabbos.”

It should be noted that in the past two weeks, Kikar H’Shabbos received a number of inquires from Israelis in Capetown (about 7 hours from Johannesburg, where most of the travelers were located) asking for assistance. They said that they registered for the flight but since all of South Africa is under a heavy lockdown, without any possibility to travel from city to city, they had no way of getting to the rescue flight leaving from Johannesburg. Kikar H’Shabbos turned to the Israeli embassy on this issue as well until it was settled.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)