History of the Jews in Venezuela
In search of El Dorado in the Eastern Venezuela during 1568 the conqueror Pedro Malaver de Silva recruited about 600 men, many of them with wives and children, who were mostly Jewish converts (being suspected of continuing with their religious practices, they were called Marranos) expelled from various European cities under Spanish rule.
Malaver de Silva began his itinerary with the ascent of the coastal mountain range, camping in the Venezuelan city of Valencia del Rey.
Although initially the hope of finding great fortunes of El Dorado made the men endure all the hardships, the infinity of the plains ended up discouraging them.
The attempts by Spanish forces to attack the settlement failed, owing to the protection of Dutch naval units, the local Venezuelan population, and the defense by the Jews themselves.
In 1812 Simon Bolivar, considered Venezuela’s liberator, found refuge and material support for his army in the homes of Jews from Curaçao at that time a British colony.
Several Jews of Curazao even fought in the ranks of Bolivar’s army during the war as admiral Luis Brion commandant of the Cayes naval expedition, David Haim de Moshe Lopez Penha, who served as a colonel of infantry; Benjamin Henriques, who became a captain in the cavalry; and Juan de Sola, who commanded the cavalry at the Battle of Carabobo in 1821 to join his fight for independence of Latin America.
[citation needed] The ties between Jews in the Dutch island colonies and Venezuela increased more dramatically between 1819-1821 after its new constitution called for religious freedom.
[2] Its origin can be located in the 19th century, when Sephardic Jews from the Dutch colony of Curaçao began to migrate to the Venezuelan city of Santa Ana de Coro in 1824.
As they claimed Dutch citizenship, the consul-general for the Netherlands, Van Lansberge, informed the home government in Amsterdam, and three war ships were sent to La Guaira, the principal seaport of Venezuela, and the redress demanded was at once granted.
The Venezuelan government agreed to salute the Dutch flag; to restore to the Jews their property in Coro; and to pay an indemnity of 200,000 pesos ($160,000), the last clause being carried into effect in 1859, after lengthy diplomatic negotiations with the ambassador of the Netherlands, Jhr.
[3] Assimilation of Jews in Venezuela was difficult, but in the last decade of the 19th century though small communities could be found in Puerto Cabello, Coro, Caracas, Maracaibo, Villa de Cura, Barcelona, Carupano, Rio Chico, and Barquisimeto.
[8] Venezuela was hospitable to Jewish life, and Jews "developed deep ties to the country and a strong sense of patriotism", acculturating and settling into a "comfortable 'live-and-let-live' rapport with the government".
[22] Antisemitism has occurred periodically throughout the history of Venezuela, including instances of anti-Jewish rioting in the 19th century and immigration restrictions in the early 20th, leading to a difficult assimilation for Jews in the country.
Members of the World Jewish Congress and Simon Wiesenthal Center have portrayed comments from Chávez as antisemitic, including comparing other politicians to Hitler and the use of the phrase wandering Jews in reference to opposition leaders.
[14][23][24][25] The Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations also raised concerns that Chavez's rhetoric, which had "once clearly differentiated criticism of Israel from that of the Venezuelan Jewish community," had merged his anti-Zionist views with anti-Semitic ones beginning in 2004,[26] while The Jewish Telegraphic Agency stated that Chavez's criticism of Israeli military actions during the 2006 Lebanon War was "fanning the flames of anti-Semitism.
The Institute also stated that pro-Chavez supporters were responsible for frequent antisemitic incidents such as desecrations of and attacks on synagogues and graffitied slogans such as "Jews go home.
The US Department of State's 2022 report on International Religious Freedom noted that the community expressed worry about growing antisemitic rhetoric, such as Esteban Trapiello promoting Holocaust denial.
