Israel Matzav: Venezuela's Jews on the run

Venezuela's Jews on the run

The Miami Herald reports that Jews no longer feel safe in Venezuela. The community is shrinking as many Jews flee to Miami - and probably to Israel. The main motivation for fleeing is an education law that requires even private schools like the local Jewish schools to teach something called “Bolivarian doctrine,” a vague catchall for whatever Hugo Chávez wants it to be. The schools will be supervised by “communal councils” (read: commissars from the socialist party) and the central government will decide who can and who cannot enter universities and the teaching profession. They have also restricted the teaching of foreign languages, i.e. Hebrew.

As it happened in Cuba under Fidel Castro, the number of Jews in Venezuela has dramatically decreased since Hugo Chávez came to power. The Hebrew community has been the object of invectives from the president himself and the government media. Which prompts me to ask: What will be the fate of the vibrant Jewish community in the land that gave refuge to my ancestors and served as a model to the Jewish diaspora?

``The fact is, many members of the Jewish community have left Venezuela,'' said Abraham Levy Benshimol, president of Venezuela's Confederation of Israeli Associations. ``The more people we lose, the more difficult it becomes to maintain our institutions.''

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Israel Matzav: Venezuela's Jews on the run