With Chavez gone, where to for Venezuelan Jews? | The Times of Israel

JTA — For more than a decade, Venezuelan Jews have been holding their breath, subject to the whims of a mercurial president who used his bully pulpit to intimidate, rail against Israel and embrace Iran. 

There was the police raid of a Caracas school in 2004, allegedly to search for evidence in the high-profile murder case of a prosecutor. There were the demands by President Hugo Chavez when war broke out between Israel and Hamas in December 2008 that his country’s Jews rebuke Israel for its conduct in Gaza. 

There was Chavez’s warm alliance with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There was the use of state radio to spread anti-Semitic canards.

Most recently, there were revelations that Venezuela’s intelligence service, SEBIN, was spying on the country’s Jewish communty............

FULL ARTICLE: With Chavez gone, where to for Venezuelan Jews? | The Times of Israel

Israel Hayom | Being a Jew under Chávez

Living in Venezuela, we had everything — a large family, a thriving business, a circle of friends both within the Jewish community and outside it, and a general feeling that we were at a good place in life. All of this was turned upside down when Hugo Chávez was elected.

I was not among the Venezuelans who shed tears of sorrow over the president's death. As someone who lived in the country's capital of Caracas for 12 years, I felt that Chávez's reign was in direct opposition to freedom, democracy, human rights, and above all — my Jewish identity...........

FULL ARTICLE: Israel Hayom | Being a Jew under Chávez