Kristallnacht in Caracas

Late Shabbat evening, 15 heavily armed men stormed the main Sephardi Synagogue in Caracas. Torah scrolls were damaged, prayer books ripped apart and anti-Semitic graffiti like ‘death to all’ and ‘Jews get out’ was strewn on the walls. The administrative officers were also broken into and official documents and computer hard drives stolen. The group also called for Jewish people to be expelled from the country.

This attack against the Venezuelan Jewish community is not an isolated incident. Over the last two years anti-Semitism in the country has sky-rocketed as the relationship between Israel and the Venezuelan government has worsened. In particular, since the outbreak of the recent war in Gaza and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, the government controlled media has been spewing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has reported that there is a well-orchestrated campaign on TV, radio, print and Internet media owned by the government, openly questioning Israel’s right to exist. There has also been the publication of such anti-Semitic materials as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and a group of pro-government journalists is urging the population to boycott of businesses owned by Venezuela Jews.

More frightening, a system 'plan of action' was published in a pro-government digital newspaper, Aporrea.org, for mobilizing the society against Venezuela’s Jewish community and Israel. The plan calls for among other things:

• Publicly denouncing by name, the members of powerful Jewish groups in Venezuela, names of their companies and businesses in order to boycott them
• Avoiding products, stores, supermarkets, restaurants, and where Kosher food is sold which either belongs or has links with 'Zionist Jews'
• Shouting pro-Palestine and anti-Israel slogans at Jews on the street
• Inviting anti-Zionist Jews living in Venezuela to publicly express their disassociation from 'Zionist war crimes' and the imposition of artificial State of Israel on Palestine
• Nationalisation of companies, confiscation of properties of those Jews who support the Zionist atrocities of the Nazi-State of Israel, and donate this property to the Palestinian victims of today’s Holocaust
• Sending all type of aid to Palestinians including weapons
• Organizing an international conference about the creation of the theocratic - Nazi state of Israel as a genocidal European colony, and about the myths and facts of the alleged Jewish Holocaust or Holohoax (a blackmailing industry)
• Support the dissolution of the artificial State of Israel

Understandably, many in the small Venezuelan Jewish areas (about 20 000) now fear for their personal safety. One of my good friends who grew up and whose family still live there relayed to me yesterday the level of anxiety his grandmother a Holocaust survivor was feeling. Crying hysterically on the phone after hearing the news of the synagogues desecration, he tried to reconcile her by telling her to remain at home. She replied it is happening all over again. They know where we live, that’s what happened in Germany last time. They took us from our homes. Nowhere is safe now.

Many may read about the plight of Venezuela’s Jews and dismiss it as a consequence of living in an unstable Latin American country, with no relevance to them. But this analysis would be mistaken. Contrary to the perception among the mostly ignorant Anglo-Jewish world, Venezuela is the oldest democracy in South America (since 1958). Moreover, it has historically been remarkably tolerant towards Jews. It was one of the few countries after the Holocaust that opened its doors to Jewish immigration. This explosion of anti-Semitism in recent years has come as a shock to the community and is contrary to what they believe to be the values of the country.

For South African Jews in particular, Venezuela’s horrible experience should resonate strongly. Our community is also currently experiencing the early stages of a similar phenomenon. We too have been targeted by pro-Palestinian groups for a Jewish boycott (see Muslim anti-Semitism takes a leaf from the Nazis), have government ministers sprouting classical anti-Semitic canards, so far without censure (see Deputy Minister's anti-Jewish remarks on YouTube) and are being placed under tremendous pressure by civil society to denounce Israel. A recent, Pew research report found that South Africans tend to have the most negative views of Jews of all non-Muslim nations surveyed - though this has been challenged.

Now is the time for us to show solidarity with the Jews of Venezuela. The leadership of our community should at a minimum issue a press statement in support and call on our government (which has strong ties with Chavez) to denounce these acts.

In these difficult times I think it is important for all of us to keep in mind the poem "First they came..." by Pastor Martin Niemöller.

First they came... Pastor Martin Niemöller When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I was not a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

Below is a CNN video on the desecrated synagogue. If the video isn't showing, try the BBC version here.

Comments

[Blacklisted Dictator]

Dear N,

Many thanks for your email. You told a chilling story and my Cc's should take note of the implications for this " progressive non-racist post-struggle ANC/ SACP anti-zionist democracy". However, I think that some of them are too embedded in the system to even begin to understand what is going on here.

Anti-semitism is also on the rise here in South Africa; it uses anti-zionist camouflage but is now beginning to show its true revolting colours.

Good news to hear that you are showing solidarity with the Venezuelan Jewish community.

We should keep each other updated on the latest developments.

viva,
Maxxx

[Blacklisted Dictator]

Good morning Maxxx,

Another day has broken in revolutionary Venezugaga. O socialismo o muerte!

Mi comandante arguably is crazy, at least bipolar. His political action
becomes increasingly erratic. His language is fascistic.

As you know he demonizes Israel for its intervention in the Gaza strip. He
recently celebrated in the media his personal moral triumph over Israel as
it kicked out all his embassy staff and organizes a lot of people in the
streets in support of the Palestinian cause. His foolish rhetoric has been
fueling blatant anti-Semitism for quite some time. In that climate, a group
of 15 armed and masked people stormed and vandalized the Jewish centre and
the main synagogue in a Nazi like manner. Most probably, the people belong
to his armed paramilitary and radical activists who remind me more and more
of SA troops. These People recently stormed and vandalized a cultural centre
and the police stood by and did nothing. It is quite scary.

Now, Huguito over the weekend publicly accused the opposition (he calls them
"the oligarchs") to have used some young people without soul (sin alma) to
provoke violence looking for blood. Not his supporters but the oligarchs
committed the atrocity against the Jewish centre just to blame it afterwards
to his government.

You need to know that mi comandante runs a new referendum to change the
constitution. He feels he needs another 200 years to implement socialism and
he knows that his people want him to serve his entire life but, so far, the
law does not allow it. Last year, he tried to change this - and lost. This
he considered a major political accident but, certainly, did not correspond
with what the people really want: Him. So, he makes a new attempt on the
15th of February and he will do so until the last Yanonami on the confluence
of Orinoco and Amazonas is convinced. Yet, most probably, the ignorant
people will say "No is No". The opposition has been gaining momentum. The
rallies and marches against the "vitalicio" were quite impressive. That is
why mi comandante gets desperate. He seeks to discredit the opposition and
to intimidate all those who are against him. In fact, he becomes more and
more a pain in the neck and nobody knows what happens if he loses. The
situation might get out of control after the 15th....

Yours revolutionarily from Venezugaga

[Lawrence]

this so disturbs me and upsets me, the several disturbing parallels between that thug Chavez and his cronies and South Africa.

Chavez's govt is boiler plate leftwing fascist, Chavez in an age-old tactic is scapegoating the Jews for all his failed policies, and they are no longer even pretending to hide behind anti-Israelism, anti-Zionism is now operating hand in hand with open Jew-hatred.

Here in SA the ANC increasingly seeks to scapegoat the Jews/Jew nation for all their failed policies and corruption - an age-old distraction. They have the support from their allies COSATU who seek to divert attention from their own selling out of the workers. The ANC foreign policy like Chavez's is boiler plate left-wing fascist. The SA media like the media in Venezuela passes off Jew-hatred as Middle-East reporting, and the anti-Zionist Left in SA like Venezuela is no longer pretending that it is merely anti-Israel - it is increasingly openly anti-Jewish.

It gets worse, unlike Venezuela, SA has a minority Muslim population that is vocal and has strong anti-Semitic elements within it.

Where can Venezuela's Jews go? To Israel of course but how are things in the rest of South America? Argentina, Brazil in particular with large Jewish populations? Better but how much better and for how much longer? there is also Mexico of course, and the US and Canada which they should consider...

[Extremely concerned]

And now these groups are marching against us in South Africa!

[Fausta]

The Jewish community in Caracas has been there for nearly 200 years.
This is extremely disturbing.

[Baila]

Venezuela has been a great place for Jews to live until Hugo Chavez became president. Since that time he has bullied the government, the middle and upper class, the media and private industry into submission. Many of the country's middle class has left, taking their resources with them, resulting in a national "brain-drain". Chavez has made promises to the poor that he hasn't kept; they still remain in the same situation as his corrupt government feeds off the people. His best friends are Castro of Cuba and Ahmanijad of Iran. Since he has come to power the local Hebraica (community center)has been stormed by his police (looking for a suspected "spy", businesses have been taken away, Jewish education has been restricted and now this synagogue has been vandalized. The anti-semitism filters from the government to the masses. Jews no longer live freely in Venezuela. Period. There is no future for them there.

[Gloria Diamond]

WHERE IS JOE KENNEDY ON THIS???

[aion kinah]

Chavez has made promises to the poor that he hasn't kept; they still remain in the same situation as his corrupt government feeds off the people. His best friends are Castro of Cuba and Ahmanijad of Iran.

[Uggs Clearance]

like the subtle taste of tea that last long after a sip. The subtle bitter is what it is meant to be