SAN PEDRO, Guatemala — Lake Atitlan in the Guatemalan highlands was formed 85,000 years ago by a volcanic eruption that blew ash as far away as Florida. Rivers gradually filled the crater that was left behind to form one of the deepest lakes in the world.  San Pedro is a town of 10,000 built on a peninsula on the shores of Lake Atitlan. 

San Pedro’s location in mountainous terrain 200 kms west of Guatemala City has kept this town of indigenous Mayans isolated from the urban culture of the capital. San Pedro has two docks whose boats ferry people to Mayan villages in different parts of Lake Atitlan.  Fishermen in wooden boats drift along the shores of the volcano-ringed lake, and women in bright multicolored skirts wash clothes along its banks. From each dock, cobblestone streets run up a steep hill to an outdoor market in the center of the town, where people from the surrounding villages hawk meat, vegetables, fruit, homewares, and clothing in the shadow of the town’s cathedral. 

Fifteen years ago, in the lower part of San Pedro, near the docks, Israelis began building sprawling, low-budget hostels.  Israelis now own three backpacker hostels that accommodate hundreds of Israeli tourists, and Israeli investors are in the process of building a luxury hotel at the head of the lake.  

In 2010, to meet the spiritual needs of the Israeli visitors, Avraham Meiri built a two-story Chabad House that serves as both a synagogue and a kosher restaurant.  Avraham holds a Torah studies group during the week and Sabbath services on Saturday. On high holy days, Avraham rents out the soccer field to hold passover meals.  This April, 300 people attended his passover. “Every Jew is connected to God,” Rabbi Meiri said, “whether he knows it or not.  Chabad House exists to reveal their connections to God.”

Chabad House promotes a strict personal and sexual ethic, but its staff members do not come across as harsh or judgmental.  Ariel Biton, who is a volunteer at Chabad House, said, “Jews have 613 laws. Chabad House challenges Jews to try to obey one or maybe two of these laws.  If I obey one or two, maybe I can obey more. Many non-religious Jews never try to obey even one law.”

Israeli businesses and tourists are now a lifeline for the residents of San Pedro.  The coffee prices have plummeted in the last ten years, making it impossible for small family farmers to survive in this area.  Fortunately, the children of campesinos now have the option of working in the tourist industry. The most ambitious locals are proficient in Hebrew, and the signs and menus in the waterfront establishments are all in Hebrew.

Gasper Aju Navichic, whose nickname is Gasper Artista, speaks Hebrew and runs painting workshops for Israeli tourists, said, “Most Israelis who come here have served in the army, and they come badly in need of rest and relaxation.  Painting for them is therapeutic. It helps to calm them and bring them peace.”  

The Israelis who visit San Pedro are typically single backpackers in their twenties. Most have served for three years in the Israeli army, after which there is a tradition of taking an extended trip to an “exotic” part of the world.  Guatemala is an especially attractive destination because of its history of friendly relationships with Israel. 

In 1948, Guatemala’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Jorge Garcia Granados, cast the deciding vote in the United Nations to create the state of Israel. In Israel, streets are named after Granados, and in the 1970s, when Maoist guerillas kidnapped Granados’s grandson at a softball game, an Israeli security firm helped secure his release.  

Since 1948, Guatemala and Israel have cooperated closely on military and development projects.  Guatemalan soldiers carry Israeli weapons, and Guatemala is the only country besides the U.S. that houses its Israeli embassy in Jerusalem. Guatemala’s former president Jimmy Morales, who is an evangelical Christian, said, “In 70 years of relations, Israel has been our ally.  We have a Christian way of thinking that, as well as the politics of it, has us believing that Israel is our ally and we must support it.” Morales’s first trip overseas as Guatemala’s president was to Israel, where he received two honorary doctorates. 

Guatemala’s president Alejandro Giammattei, who assumed office in January 2020,  has said that he would maintain Morales’s pro-Israeli policies. He will keep Guatemala’s embassy in Jerusalem and, and he will designate Hezbollah a terrorist group.  “He who is Israel’s enemy is Guatemala’s enemy,” Giammattei said. 

Signs of Israeli development assistance are ubiquitous in Guatemala. The power plant built on the base of Guatemala’s most famous volcano (Picaya) is run by the Israeli company Ormat.  The radar system at Guatemala City’s La Aurora airport is managed by Israeli technicians.  Guatemala’s agricultural ministry has cited  the Israeli kibbutz as a model for the development of Guatemalan highlands. When the Guatemalan congress bestowed upon the Israeli Ambassador its highest honor — the order of the Quetzal— the speaker said, “If there is thriving agriculture in Guatemala, it is an Israeli contribution.  If we have education, medicine, security— it’s the Israelis that shared with us their rich experience.” 

“The locals here believe that Jews are God’s people, and that they bring good luck.” 

In the Guatemalan highlands, the indigenous population is predominantly pentecostal and evangelical protestant— and they have a dispensationalist theology that is friendly to Israel and to Israelis. Aviv Calderone, manager of Zoola Hotel, an Israeli backpacker establishment in San Pedro, says that his job is made easy because the locals are “evangelicals, so they like us.  There are many places in the world where Israelis cannot visit or do business.”

Delia Chauajay, who teaches Spanish to foreigners in San Pedro, says, “the locals here believe that Jews are God’s people, and that they bring good luck.”  

There are, however, Guatemalan leaders who have words of caution for the Israelis.  Luis Enrique Xet Coche, who ran for mayor of San Pedro, would like to see the Israelis more integrated into the life of the town. 

“Most Israeli visitors segregate themselves in Israeli establishments.” Coche said. “They take little interest in local languages or cultures. They help us economically, but they mostly patronize their own businesses.” 

Other villagers criticize the decadent lifestyles that they observe among the backpackers and worry that it might corrupt local kids.  

Jewish leaders are working to elevate the image of Judaism in Guatemala by working with the local governments to promote civic engagement.  Rabbi Meiri has weekly meetings with the mayor of San Pedro. Chabad House distributes rice and beans to 500 poor families every three months.  It also mobilizes groups of people to help clean up the lakeshore, which is strewn with garbage.  

In January 2018,  the chief rabbi of Guatemala, Yosef Garmon, formed a Guatemalan branch of the Israeli search-and-rescue and victim identification organization, ZAKA.  ZAKA was the first organization to respond to the eruption of Volcan de Fuego in June 2018. Following the search and rescue operation, Rabbi Garmon and his ZAKA team raised the funds to build a hundred homes to house displaced people, which is now called “new Jerusalem.” 

Rabbi Garmon said  that Latinos  have a strong “spiritual love” for Israel, but “like a marriage there has to be a physical manifestation of the love for it to last.  To feed this love and make it grow, we perform humanitarian tasks.”

Robert Carle is a professor of theology at The King’s College in Manhattan. Dr. Carle is a contributor to The American Interest, Wall Street Journal, Newsday, Religion Unplugged, Society, Human Rights Review, The Public Discourse, Reason, and Academic Questions. Some of the material in this story was published in the Wall Street Journal on November 28, 2019.