The Philippines and Israel: A Shared History

A friendship older than most people realize

When Filipino pilgrims stand for the first time on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, or walk the worn stones of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, they often describe a feeling that is hard to put into words. It is not only the emotion of visiting the land of the Bible. It is also a quiet sense of belonging, as if the Philippines and Israel have known each other for a very long time. That feeling is not imagination. The two nations share a history that is genuinely remarkable, built on courage, faith, and human kindness at a moment when much of the world had turned its back.

Most travelers arrive in the Holy Land thinking of it as a place they are visiting for the first time. What they discover is that Filipinos and Israelis have been bound together for nearly a century, through one of the most moving rescue stories of the twentieth century, through a single decisive vote at the United Nations, and today through tens of thousands of Filipino hands caring for Israeli families every single day. Understanding that shared story changes the way a pilgrimage feels. It turns a trip abroad into something closer to a homecoming.

The Open Door: how the Philippines saved Jewish lives

In the late 1930s, Jewish families across Europe were desperate to escape the rising violence of Nazi Germany and its neighbors. Country after country closed its borders, tightened its quotas, and refused entry to refugees who had nowhere else to go. In that dark climate, a small nation in Southeast Asia, still under American administration and not yet fully independent, chose to do the opposite.

President Manuel L. Quezon of the Philippine Commonwealth opened the country's doors. Between roughly 1937 and 1941, an estimated 1,300 Jewish refugees found safe haven in the Philippines, most of them settling in Manila. At a time when the great powers of the world were arguing over how few Jews they could accept, a young commonwealth in the Pacific quietly welcomed families who had lost everything. These survivors and their descendants would later become known affectionately as the "Manilaners", carrying the name of their island refuge with pride for the rest of their lives.

The rescue was not the work of one man alone. It grew out of an unusual partnership between Filipino leaders and a small circle of American Jewish businessmen in Manila, above all the Frieder brothers. The Frieders were cigar manufacturers from Cincinnati who ran their family business in the Philippines, rotating in and out of Manila to manage it. Working closely with President Quezon, with the American High Commissioner Paul McNutt, and with a young army officer named Dwight D. Eisenhower who was then serving as a military adviser in Manila, the Frieders helped build the system of visas, sponsorships, and guarantees that allowed refugees to be admitted in an orderly way.

Quezon went further than paperwork. He personally donated land from his own estate at Marikina, where a refuge known as Marikina Hall was set up to house new arrivals while they found their feet. He spoke openly about his belief that a nation is measured by how it treats the stranger and the persecuted, and he made clear that the Philippines would not shut its gates simply because others had shut theirs. There was even an ambitious plan to resettle a far larger number of Jewish refugees, possibly tens of thousands, on the southern island of Mindanao, opening up new agricultural communities there. The Second World War and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines cut that larger vision short, but the intention behind it revealed the true scale of Filipino generosity.

It is worth pausing on how extraordinary this was. The Philippines in those years was not a wealthy nation. It was still finding its own feet on the road to independence, recovering from centuries of colonial rule and facing an uncertain future in a region sliding toward war. It had every excuse to look inward and every reason to say that its resources were needed at home. Instead, its leaders chose compassion. That decision cost effort, money, and political capital, and it was made freely for people the Filipino public had never met and would never owe anything. The refugees who survived because of it went on to build lives, raise children, and carry the memory of Manila's kindness across the world.

The footprints in Rishon LeZion

For decades this story was known only to the families who lived it. In 2009, Israel and the Philippines made sure it would never be forgotten. In the city of Rishon LeZion, just south of Tel Aviv, a monument called "Open Doors" was unveiled. Designed by the Filipino sculptor Junyee, whose entry was chosen from eight competing designs, it shows three doors of rising height opening inward to form a triangle, an echo of the triangles that appear in both the Philippine and Israeli flags.

Set into the ground near the doors are footprints cast in bronze, belonging to people whose lives were touched by the rescue: a refugee who reached Manila in 1939, another who arrived from Germany in 1941, and a Filipino-Israeli descended from Holocaust survivors and born in the Philippines. Standing before that monument, a Filipino visitor is reminded that the kindness of their grandparents' generation is honored on Israeli soil, in stone, for good. Many of the guests who travel with us make a point of visiting it, and it is one of the most emotional stops of the whole journey.

One vote that helped create a nation

The bond did not end with the war. On the twenty-ninth of November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted on Resolution 181, the plan to partition the land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The vote would help open the way to the founding of the modern State of Israel the following year. The Philippines cast its ballot in favor. What makes that decision so striking is that the Philippines was the only Asian country to vote yes.

It was not an easy vote. The Philippine delegation came under heavy pressure and had initially leaned the other way, but in the end the country chose to support the resolution. For Israelis, that vote is remembered with deep gratitude, because it came from a nation that had already proven its friendship a decade earlier by opening its doors. For Filipinos, it is a source of quiet pride to know that their young republic, barely one year into its own independence, helped shape the birth of another nation half a world away.

From rescue to relationship

Formal diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Israel were established in 1957, and they have remained warm ever since. Over the following decades the friendship grew from a wartime memory into a living, working relationship touching agriculture, technology, defense, health, and above all people.

Today around thirty thousand Filipinos live and work in Israel, and a great many of them are caregivers, looking after elderly and disabled Israelis in their homes with a tenderness that Israeli families speak about with real affection. Filipino workers in Israel are widely respected, and the word "Filipina" is often used in everyday Israeli speech as a term of warmth and trust. When a Filipino traveler walks through an Israeli city, there is a very good chance of meeting a kababayan behind a market stall, in a hospital corridor, or simply strolling on a day off. Few countries in the world feel so unexpectedly familiar.

A new chapter: direct flights from Manila to Tel Aviv

For generations, the one obstacle to visiting the Holy Land has been the journey itself. Reaching Israel from the Philippines has always meant a connecting flight through the Gulf, Europe, or another hub, often with long layovers. That is about to change.

The Israeli carrier Arkia has announced that it will launch the first ever nonstop flights between Manila and Tel Aviv, with service beginning in early January 2027. The route will operate on a widebody aircraft with a flying time of roughly eleven to twelve hours, initially running on a weekly, seasonal basis in the first months of the year. When it begins, it will be the first direct air bridge ever built between the two countries, and it will make a Holy Land pilgrimage simpler, faster, and far less tiring than it has ever been. We explain what this means for your travel plans in our guide to the new direct flights.

The significance goes beyond convenience. A direct route is a sign of how much the two countries now value the movement of people between them, for tourism, for pilgrimage, for business, and for the many Filipino families with loved ones already living in Israel. The doors that Quezon opened in the 1930s are, in a very literal sense, being opened wider still.

What this shared history means for you

For a Filipino traveler, this long friendship is more than a collection of historical facts. It shapes the whole experience of visiting the Holy Land. It means you are not arriving as a stranger in a distant place. You are arriving in a country that remembers your nation's kindness, that has honored it in bronze, and that is full of your countrymen going about their daily lives.

It means practical comfort too. You will find Filipino communities, Filipino food, Sunday Mass attended by Filipino workers, and people who understand your language and your faith. For pilgrims who worry about traveling so far from home, that reassurance is priceless. The land of the Bible turns out to be a place where the Filipino heart is already well known.

Here are a few of the ways this history quietly enriches a journey:

• You can visit the "Open Doors" monument in Rishon LeZion and stand where your nation's generosity is permanently honored.
• You can walk the same streets of the Holy Land alongside a large, welcoming Filipino community.
• You travel knowing your two countries share nearly a century of friendship, faith, and mutual respect.
• You arrive at a moment of real momentum, as direct flights and growing ties make the journey easier than ever before.

Walk into the story yourself

History like this is best understood not from a book but from the ground where it happened. To learn more about who we are and why we care so deeply about serving Filipino pilgrims, read about us. When you are ready to plan the journey, explore our Holy Land packages and our dedicated pilgrimage tours, each one designed with Filipino travelers in mind, from the food to the faith to the pace of the days.

The Philippines and Israel have been walking together for almost a hundred years. Now it is your turn to take the next step. When you feel ready, simply request a quote and let us help you turn this shared history into your own unforgettable pilgrimage.