Fuente Latina: How One Woman in Jerusalem Outsmarted A Massive Spanish Propaganda Machine | Leah Soibel

Six hundred million Spanish speakers are being told a story about Israel — and it's being scripted by governments with billion-dollar media budgets. In 2012, Leah Soibel decided to fight back. No staff. No budget. No backing. Just a kitchen table in Jerusalem and one unconventional weapon: journalists — 650 of them, flown to Israel over 13 years to see the facts with their own eyes. What happened next turned a one-woman operation into Fuente Latina, one of the most influential pro-Israel media voices in the entire Spanish-speaking world. How she pulled it off — outgunned on every front — is the real David-and-Goliath story of our time.

_______________________________________________

Is Israel the Front Line of Western Civilization? Israelis are helping make your daily life easier and healthier and safer. 

⭐Please leave a 5-star review.

🎧 All episodes + every platform: https://pod.link/1585604285

📺 YouTube: @israelitrailblazers | 📧 Substack: findinginspiration.substack.com 

Transcript

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 0:00

There are 600 million Spanish speakers worldwide. There were a lot of bad actors, all focusing on trying to win Latino hearts and minds. And what they built is a network of disinformation and hate that spans from Asia, the Middle East to the Western Hemisphere. So I saw my opening in the Spanish language market, and I saw an opportunity, more so than be pro-Israel, but to be pro-truth and to stop disinformation that's fueling hate that we're seeing in the world today.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 0:34

This is a real David and Goliath story. One woman, one microphone, and billions of Spanish-speaking people being misinformed about Israel. Meet Leah Soibel. In 2012, she sat down at her kitchen table in Jerusalem with no staff, no budget, and no backing, and decided that misinformation about Israel was over. She built Fuente Latina from nothing into the most powerful pro-Israel media force in the Spanish-speaking world with the premise of letting people see facts for themselves. Thousands of accurate stories have now been told. This is the Israeli Trailblazers Show, and I am your host, Jennifer Weisman. Let's learn more about this amazing force, Fuenta Latina. Welcome, Leah. How are you? Thank you, Jennifer, for having me on the show. What is Fuente Latina in a sentence?

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 1:28

Our mission is to empower thousands of global Hispanic journalists and influencers to cover Israel and the Jewish world and the Middle East accurately in real time in an effort to counter disinformation that's fueling anti-Semitism and to break down barriers and build up positive perceptions between millions of Latinos and Jews. What makes Latinos unique as an ethnic community? Let's just start there. When I did sit down at my kitchen table in Jerusalem in 2012, I'd already been working in the media landscape on the ground in Israel for a few years. And what I saw that was a lot of attention was being given to the English language market space, which rightfully so is an important and very influential space. We're talking about American media, European media. Then there's a lot of focus on Arabic media, obviously, because of the neighborhood. If you look at the third most spoken language in the world, it's Spanish. There are 600 million Spanish speakers worldwide. I was thinking of how do I fill a very huge void in the marketplace? The Spanish language market was absolutely untapped. And what I saw concerned me because there were a lot of bad actors. We're talking about state-sponsored from Iran to terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as political extreme right and extreme left, all focusing on trying to win Latino hearts and minds. And Israel and the Jewish people weren't really focusing on that space. I saw my opening in the Spanish language market and I saw an opportunity, more so than be pro-Israel, but to be pro-truth and to stop disinformation that's fueling hate that we're seeing in the world today.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 3:07

What year are we talking about here?

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 3:09

This was early 2000s? Probably around 2008, 2010. Cairo played a part in shaping your belief system. What did you experience in Cairo? It was non-Jewish audiences as a whole. I went there and I participated in something called Mock Arab League, and I had a chance to hear for the first time firsthand opinions of peers from all of the Arab countries and Muslim countries, including Iran. What I heard was an absolute distortion and misunderstanding of who Israelis are, who the Jewish people are. In the three days that I had heated debates, we maintained our differences, but we also found our commonalities. In terms of communication and strategy, and how do we break down barriers and misperceptions? It requires a communication strategy. And that's specifically how I built Fuente Latina and how it operates today, is really in an effort to communicate facts, to communicate truths, and to ensure that the hate and these misperceptions don't continue long-term and that we're able to have conversations and to get to know each other as people in the world.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 4:11

Give me an example of a misperception.

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 4:14

When it comes to Israel, it's that it's in a constant state of war, that Israelis are all militaristic, that Jews are all rich. In some cases, we have horns. But what's fascinating about the Spanish-speaking audience and the Latino community specifically is that we've done a lot of public opinion, qualitative and quantitative research of Fuente Latina over the years. And what we know to be true is that of all the ethnic or racial groups out there, Latinos typically harbor the least amount of anti-Semitic sentiments more than any other group. When Israelis travel after the army, they travel throughout Latin America and they fall in love with the Latino culture and language, so much so that in Israel today, you actually have two dedicated channels on TV to telenovelas. And anywhere you go in Israel, in addition to the very large Latin American immigrant community that currently lives in Israel, you have thousands of other Israelis that grew up watching telenovelas in Spanish and speak quite fluently as a result of just watching TV. So there is this bridge and there is this very strong, I would say, value set connect between the Hispanic world and Israel. We're constantly trying to build that bridge and to strengthen it.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 5:30

Why would a Latino youth, someone under 30, be interested in Israel? What's the connection for them?

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 5:38

We have to go back one or two generations back to understand why Israel is even on a Latinos radar. And that's because, number one, Latinos are traditionally Catholic. The younger generation are becoming more atheist or Protestant evangelical, which is the numbers are rising significantly and very rapidly in the Hispanic world. As part of their Catholic faith, their grandmother or their mothers on their top three bucket list items to visit Tira Santa, to go to the Holy Land. And so if you look at programming on TV during Christmas and Easter time in the Spanish-speaking world, it all has to do with Tira Santa. It's something that they're familiar with. They don't know the reality of it on the ground. They couldn't tell you where Jerusalem or Tel Aviv are, but it is something that's always been part of their tradition, of their religion, of their culture. And so there's always been that desire to take that pilgrimage to Tira Santa and to visit it. So even if you're not religious and you're somebody under 30, you grew up with Yira Santa in and around the TV you watched or the radio or hearing your grandmother talk about, I want to one day make a pilgrimage. They have that curiosity. We do find that curiosity. And when they're able to either get to know Jews, the Jewish people, or to have an opportunity to take a trip to Israel, it sparks something in them that they then want to continue learning more about. And it helps in breaking down those misperceptions. But it's really important also to know that for the Hispanic world, Israel is seen as a democracy in the Middle East. It's seen as a country that does have the right to defend itself. It's been very hard also in the Latino community for them to watch everything that's happened. The largest immigrant group to have been taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th were actually Latin American immigrants to Israel from the massacre were part of it. And even the last two remaining hostages to leave Gaza in this past October are actually Israeli Argentinians. The knowledge of what's been happening in Israel has been very much present for most Hispanics. Fuente Latina has been working 24-7 tirelessly over the last two years, ensuring accurate coverage of it in the Spanish language and Hispanic media. But it's not foreign, even though it's distant.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 7:56

Enjoying the show? Please take five seconds and tap a five-star review wherever you're listening to this show. It helps more people find this podcast and grow the Israeli Trailblazers community. So want to get into what you've seen in terms of results, but you actually bring journalists from all over the world.

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 8:20

The trips that Fuente Latina run, and we brought more than 650 non-Jewish journalists over the last 13 years now, is that it is a working trip for journalists. These journalists are coming to Israel on Fuente Latina media fellowships. They probably would have not ever visited Israel in a working capacity as a journalist. The trip is specifically tailored for these journalists to learn how to cover Israel through a Latino and Spanish language lens, which is quite distinct from an English language American lens. And as part of their fellowship, they are required to publish at least two stories, either while they're in Israel or after they go home. But more so to be able to learn about Israel and why it's important to cover it once they go back home. We want to ensure that there is a follow-up mechanism once they're back home to be able to continue to work with them throughout their career.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 9:10

When they go back home, they live in all different places all over the world, right? We're talking Puerto Rico, Mexico, Argentina. Where else are some of the journalists coming from?

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 9:20

So Fuente Latina works across three continents. We work with journalists in Spain, Hispanic journalists across the US and throughout Latin America.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 9:29

You mentioned that early on there was a lot of disinformation. And that's really what sparked your idea about starting Fuente Latina, which is brilliant, by the way. Do you think they came pretty close to changing hearts and minds?

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 9:43

In some cases, yes. And in some cases, we're actually seeing that play out in real time, specifically the last two years. It wasn't just limited to American students on college campuses. We also saw Hispanics involved as well in those protests in the United States over the last two years and also Spain, as we saw immediately after October 7th. But looking back to when I started Fuente Latina in 2012, curiously, the month before I started Fuente Latina, Iran announced that it was launching a 24-7 television news network, which exists till this day. And shortly after Russia started RT in Español, in addition to other languages, Hezbollah at that time already had Almanad in Spanish. More recently, they have a new brand called Almayadin, which is in Spanish. And I can go down the list of all the different networks, even Al Jazeera AJ Plus is in español. I won't name the entire laundry list because it's quite large, but I will say that they started investing in winning Latino hearts and minds over a decade ago, almost now two decades, way before Fuente Latina or even Israel or the Jewish people were paying attention to it. And so the danger wasn't back then, the danger is now because they have been at it for a very long time and very strategically. And what they built is a network of disinformation and hate that spans from Asia, the Middle East, all the way to the Western hemisphere. We see it in social media every day. We see it even in media alliances that they have. And what we're seeing now in Latin America with recent attacks of anti-Semitism on the ground and of targeting of Israelis, and not only Latin America, but in the United States as well, is a direct result of all those efforts over a decade ago to start to sway hearts and minds. And less so I think of the people, because what we see is a disconnect of public opinion on the ground in journalism with the journalists that we engage with is from the government level, but many governments were swayed by this access and network of evil. Thankfully, we haven't seen significant impact on the ground just yet, but they're still investing billions of dollars each year.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 11:51

Yeah, I would think with social media today, it's like a dry forest and you drop a match and it spreads like wildfire. I want to talk about October 7th when the Hamas-led terrorist attack happened. How did you mobilize Fuente Latina so quickly across all the continents?

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 12:08

Because we've already been in operation for 13 years, we already had the infrastructure, the staff, and all the relationships in place, as well as the reputation. So that morning, when we found out, I was actually with a group of very, very important journalists in Rabat in Morocco, where we were covering the Abraham Accords. And that morning, October 7th, we actually had a flight to Israel where there was a large conference due to take place about the Abraham Accords. So while I sent a journalist home, obviously we had to cancel the trip. I continued on my way to Israel, where I was on the ground for a full month working with 3,000 journalists that parachuted in to cover the story as it was unfolding. And so Fuente Latina has already has producers on the ground, has extensive contacts throughout the Spanish language media network. And so we were able to mobilize quicker, I think, than most, if not all. In November, we started writing monthly delegations of Hispanic media to Israel. Since October 7th, we have brought 200 non-Jewish Hispanic journalists to Israel. I think more so than any other group that brings media delegations to the Middle East.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 13:14

Leah, what you've built is beyond impressive. This is like next level Barry Weiss. This is incredible. If every Latino news consumer in the world could hear one truth about Israel that the mainstream legacy media probably would never share, what would you want them to know?

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 13:34

I want them to know that they are welcome to come visit Israel. Israel is not a dangerous place. They want to come. We can't forget that it is a bucket list item and there's a desire. And if the opportunity arises, that take it. You won't regret it.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 13:48

Amen to that. Anyone who has come to Israel has left and said that it was by far, not even close, the greatest trip they've ever taken in their life. And that is Christian, Muslim, Jew.

GUEST, FOUNDER LEAH SOIBEL 14:02

If I could add one more thing, I think that's really important. Hispanics, not only Latin America, but more so right now in the United States, are looking for allies, just like Israel and the Jewish people are looking for allies. And I think that it's an opportunity for our communities to come together and help each other right now because we're both feeling vulnerable. We're feeling attacked and under threat. And I can tell you for certain that Hispanics very much admire Israelis and the Jewish people. And I think that we have to help each other, particularly right now, in countering future hate that is targeting our communities.

HOST, JENNIFER WEISSMANN 14:34

As always, the battle for hearts and minds is being fought in the media, and this time by empowering Spanish-speaking journalists with accurate information. Fuente Latina was built in Israel, designed to share truth. Your life is better because of the Israelis you've never met. And that's not politics, that's just a fact. Thanks for listening to this episode. Please hit subscribe and post it on all of your social medias. This is the Israeli Trailblazer Show, and I am your host, Jennifer Weissman. Until next time.