By Larry Luxner
LARNACA, Cyprus — Galia Sopher and her two young daughters had spent the night of Oct. 6, 2023, camping in the fields near their home in Kibbutz Mefalsim on the Gaza border when, at 6:30 the next morning, air-raid sirens woke them and rockets began raining down from the sky.
Sopher tried calling her husband, Amitai, at home, but he had already run into the shelter where there was no phone signal.
The three made it back and joined him there, terrified because, although they had long since gotten used to sirens, they realized that this time was different.
“We started hearing machine guns and understood there were terrorists inside the kibbutz,” recalled the 36-year-old kindergarten teacher, who grew up in Mexico and spent the past 16 years of her life in Israel.
“We tried to get our girls to stay quiet, and waited for hours. We didn’t know if terrorists were hiding in the bushes,” said Sopher.
“Finally, at around 3 a.m., we got a message that we could leave the kibbutz. While driving to our friend’s house in central Israel, we saw bodies all around us. I told our girls to cover their eyes so they wouldn’t see.
“I don’t know how we got so lucky and why others didn’t.”
Despite her longtime Zionism, Galia — a former spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces — said remaining in Israel became too difficult emotionally. So four months ago, they relocated to nearby Cyprus, joining an exodus that’s quickly turning this Greek-speaking island into a sort of second Jewish promised land.
“Unfortunately, they keep coming,” said Rabbi Arie Raskin, who founded Chabad of Cyprus 22 years ago. He estimates that 3,500 Israeli families, totaling around 15,000 people, now call the Republic of Cyprus home. That’s up from 2,000 families before the Oct. 7 attack.
“Every day, new families are arriving here, but they feel sad about it,” he said. “They always tell me it’s temporary.”
Cyprus’ proximity to Israel is not the only advantage. As a member of the EU, Cyprus has a stable currency and liberal tax laws. The cost of living is dramatically lower than in Israel, and violent crime is virtually unheard of.
Israelis are warmly welcomed here — so much so that signs in the duty-free shops at Larnaca International Airport beckon travelers in English, Greek and Hebrew.
Last year, according to official figures, about 411,000 Israelis visited Cyprus.
Amnon Keiny, 56, recently spent a long weekend in Cyprus with his wife, 54-year-old therapist Dafna Dariel. The couple came here because Keiny had been planning a Zoom call with a key US client but didn’t want to risk staying in Israel and having his call interrupted by air-raid sirens.
Cyprus, in fact, has long been a popular wedding destination for Israelis who are unable or unwilling to marry under the auspices of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, which recognizes only ceremonies performed according to Orthodox Jewish law.
The Lordos Beach, located 20 minutes’ drive north of Larnaca’s airport. The hotel used to cater to Russians, but since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the number of Russians visiting Cyprus has dropped from 800,000 a year to nearly zero due to EU sanctions and difficulty getting visas.
“The only solution for us was to find a new market to replace what was 20% of our tourism,” says the hotel’s manager Nicolas Kirkillari. “This was a strategic decision, and we were already on the map for Israelis.”
Cyprus is even more on the map now that Turkish Airlines has stopped flying to Tel Aviv, and Israeli Jews don’t feel safe in once-popular Turkish destinations such as Antalya, Bodrum and Cappadocia.
Cyprus’ warm attitude toward Israel also a change from the not-too-distant past, when the anti-Israel communist Demetris Christofias was president, 2008 to 2013, the only communist head of state in EU history.
Raskin said that right after the Oct. 7 attack, a few protesters gathered along Larnaca’s popular boardwalk, shouting “Free Palestine” and passing out baklava.
“Right away, I called the police chief, the minister of justice and the mayor of Larnaca, and they told me they weren’t going to allow this again,” said the rabbi, adding that he believes that the vast majority of the island’s Greek-speaking population sympathizes with Israel and the predicament it faces.
The country has not seen the major anti-Israel protests that have convulsed other places.
The fact that 36% of the island has been under Turkish military control since 1974 may explain any sympathy toward Israel.
The 112-mile-long occupation line snakes from northwestern Cyprus all the way to Famagusta and cuts right through downtown Nicosia, which has the distinction of outlasting Jerusalem, Belfast, Beirut and Berlin as the world’s last divided capital.
At Nicosia’s Ledra Palace Hotel, barbed wire and a UN buffer zone separate free Cyprus from the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus — an entity recognized by only one country: Turkey.
Heavily armed guards at the checkpoint verify the passports of all who cross into the Turkish areas.
At Limassol’s sprawling new City of Dreams Mediterranean — one of Europe’s biggest casino — Hebrew is the dominant language. Limassol is the island’s second-largest city and also home to its leading Israeli expat community.
A $75 million Jewish mega-school is planned to open in 2027. Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler says the schools plans to accommodate 1,360 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, and another 290 in pre-school.
“Currently, there are only two kinds of schools here in Cyprus: public schools in Greek, and international schools, which are mostly in English. So 99% of all Jewish kids on the island attend international schools because very few speak Greek.”
Raskin, 47, and his wife Shaindl have eight children and a granddaughter. Since opening Chabad’s Cyprus headquarters in Larnaca, he’s since expanded to Orthodox synagogues in Agia Napa, Limassol, Nicosia and Paphos.
Galia Sopher says:
“Most of the Israelis living in Cyprus don’t want to go back. Their lives are here now. You’re out of the craziness, but close enough that you can go there and return the same day.”
