THE JEWS OF VENEZUELA : FEAR

SSDD deja vue all over again

The Jews of Venezuela are now living in a country that has state sponsored anti-Semitism and on top of that it is a country that has allied itself with Iran and Hezbollah.

This past week four of us traveled on a solidarity mission to visit with the Jews of Caracas, Venezuela. I had the honor of traveling with Rabbi Avi Weiss, Gabe Ledeen of our congregation, and Rabbi Adam Scheier of Congregation Shaar Hashamayim in Montreal.

For the past few years we have been hearing of anti-Semitic attacks -- verbal and physical -- against the Jewish community of Venezuela and we felt the need to visit the community and express our solidarity with them.

There are three words that summarize what we saw in the Jewish community.

The first word is fear.

There is tremendous fear right now in Venezuela. In the general community there is fear, but that fear is greatly compounded in the Jewish community.

When I innocently asked someone if they were afraid, they said, "of course, we are all afraid." Everyone we met with--every single person--expressed fear about the situation.

Here are some examples of how the fear has manifested itself:

During Israel's recent war in Gaza, the Jewish schools remained open, but their school buses stopped running. The community felt it was too dangerous and too much of a target for children to go to school that way. The rhetoric of the government against Israel was too dangerous and incendiary.

Wherever we went, we felt that the Jewish community was literally under siege. Every Jewish institution is in a compound. When entering a Jewish organization, one must first go through enormous security -- a double door/wall entrance -- similar to the ones in prisons -- and a serpentine path to protect against terrorist attacks. Every Jewish facility is surrounded by very solid and high protective walls.

We were told by many members of the community that it was no longer safe to walk on the street. It was considered far too dangerous.

Leader after leader told us that Chavez not only created the climate for the attacks with his incendiary remarks but that he was also more directly responsible.

Anyone who says zionism is racism IS POSITIVELY ANTISEMITIC
Anyone who says Israel must exit within suicide borders IS POSITIVELY ANTISEMITIC
Anyone who thinks Israel's existence is not compulsory for this microscopic, unbelievably vulnerable ultraminority either is a complete fool, ahistoric moron OR IS POSITIVELY ANTISEMITIC

Jews inevitably are not hated because of Israel, Israel is hated because it is full of jews.
Jews have been hated THOUSANDS of years with no Israel.
Nothing is different.
Nothing will ever be different.
That's just how it is.

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