Via Daniel Rossell JEWS ARE PERSECUTE IN VENEZUELA :( The Jews of Venezuela Surrounded by chaos and danger, more than half of the community has left Venezuela . Meet a Jew who has decided to stay . Hundreds of thousands of protesters have filled the Venezuelan capital over the past five weeks. Over 30 protesters have been killed. A pregnant woman was the latest victim . In light of the recent turmoil that has gripped the country this week AishLatino interviewed a member of the Jewish community in Venezuela . He tells the story of Venezuelan revolt takes actually 15 years in gestation . We will use a pseudonym to protect his identity . Today I learned that a friend of mine was killed , he told Daniel to AsihLatino . He tried to defend his property. Daniel does not believe that the murderer has been perpetrating anti-Semitic attack , but this is common in Venezuela today. During the past 15 years , more than half of the Jewish community has left Venezuela . More than 20,000 Jews lived in Venezuela in 2000 , while today there are only 8,000. When asked if he was worried , Daniel said : As a Jew, I just worry when I m heading to the synagogue. As a citizen , I am very worried. Daniel is a businessman who used to frequently travel abroad, but the devaluation of the Venezuelan currency in the past year and the proliferation of mass thefts have made their business virtually impossible. His son, college age , is currently in the United States , but he and his wife remained in Venezuela to look after Daniels mother , who is 87 years old and refuses to leave his home . Jewish history The Jewish community in Venezuela dates back to at least the seventeenth century, although it is believed that some Sephardic Jews may have come to Venezuela after the Inquisition , in the early sixteenth century. Venezuela has the oldest Jewish cemetery in South America, located in the city of Coro. Some Jews fought in the army of Simon Bolivar in their efforts to gain independence from Spain . Ashkenazi Jews arrived in the 20th century to escape the pogroms in Eastern Russia , and in 1939 there were 250 Jews who escaped the Nazis towards Venezuela . Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998. Soon after, the exodus began . We had a great country, said Daniel AishLatino . He believes that crime and chaos are the main culprits that most Jews are gone. However, in Venezuela there have been many anti-Semitic acts . The most memorable is the act of vandalism that occurred in the synagogue of Caracas in the year 2009. On the night of Friday, January 30 of that year , a group of vandals broke into the synagogue. The next morning , members of the community came and found religious objects destroyed, damaged sidurim antisemitic slogans and painted on the walls. The attack made headlines of newspapers around the world at the time . Daniel described another incident : One day, about 300 people were standing outside the synagogue and four buses arrived with pro-Palestinian posters. One was a government bus. It was olive green color, it was the symbol and the sign Metrobus Route 18 . Along with pro Palestinian posters Chavezs slogan was , The revolution advances . The next day, the outer walls of the synagogue were vandalized and scratches. Daniel believes that the real responsibility for these attacks is the government. The governments interest is to establish chaos , impunity and lawlessness he said. This win populist support and manage to put the different sectors of society against each other ; industrial workers against farmers , businessmen against workers, and the various ethnic groups together. 1000 examples I could give you this. Chávez was known for sponsoring riots. His regime outfitting intimidasen groups for people on election day , to organize protests and to make vandalism. Although Chávez personally condemned the attack in 2009, Daniel said that the majority of the community still believes that the attack had the support of the government. Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism No murder against Jews , but there is a lot of propaganda , says Daniel , explaining part of the reason why he has decided to tolerate the situation so to stay in Venezuela . But bullying bordering on violence , nay , Daniel states that all we really know is that anti-Zionism the same as anti-Semitism . In fact, many Jews realized that lined the walls were directly correlated with Chavezs policies toward Israel. Chavez made a series of anti -Israel comments: called Israel a genocidal state , said the Mossad wanted to kill him and accused Israel of supporting their opposition. The latter was a particularly passive-aggressive comments , as Chavez s opponent in the last presidential election, Enrique Capriles , had Jewish ancestors . Chavez came together on numerous occasions , both in Caracas and Tehran , with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , Irans former president , who used to make calls for the destruction of Israel. Chavez was even expel the Israeli ambassador in 2009 , and there are direct flights from Tehran to Caracas weekly landing , some reports indicate that those flights passport check is performed. After Chavezs death in March last year , his successor , Nicolas Maduro , supported in his inaugural speech rights of the Palestinian people to have their status , which is one occasion that it had nothing to do with international politics. Supposedly Fidel Castro told Chavez that Jews would go by themselves. He believed that we would leave for fear of economic uncertainty, Daniel said. And I would not be surprised if he had actually said that. Life today Although Daniel insists that there has been no violence against Jews for being Jews , the numbers show that Jews are concerned . There were four Jewish schools in Caracas, but currently there is only one . Although there is still a community , not the community that Daniel knew ten years ago. Sometimes he refers to his community in the past tense , as if it were history. Hebraica ( the community center ) , was unique . It was off the charts . The economy is crumbling as a shortage of food and commodities. Venezuelans are living the bizarre situation of inhabiting the same comfortable homes they have owned for many years, but without being able to get toilet paper for the bathroom . Daniel s son leads them commodities U.S. . I asked my son to bring us a bag full of toilet paper on his last visit home. Interestingly, the new president of Venezuela claiming to be from a family of Jews who converted to Catholicism during the Inquisition . Daniel believes to be true , but irrelevant . Curacao s Jewish cemetery contains the grave of a Mature - Capriles , a man wearing the surnames of both the current president and the leader of the opposition. Obviously not help the situation of Venezuelan Jewry , says Daniel . Hundreds of Venezuelan Jewish families currently living in Miami and Israel. Daniel does not have clarity about their future , but knows that will not go away unless they are armed men outside his door. However, he allowed his son, the future of the family , stay in Venezuela . Throughout Jewish history , have been created and destroyed - tragically - communities. The Jewish community in Venezuela seems to be getting closer to extinction. Anxious about his future, the only consolation is that Daniel has at least we have Israel
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:40:47 +0000
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