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Don’t Stay Silent about Venezuela
By Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld and Rabbi Avi Weiss
On December 2, 2007, Venezuela ’s president Hugo Chavez was rebuffed by voters when he attempted to amend the constitution giving himself almost limitless power. But while he remains in office, the Jewish community of Venezuela remains under threat.
On December 1, Hugo Chavez’s police raided a Jewish community center where nine hundred Jews, congregants of the Union Israelita Synagogue, were participating in a wedding party. Members of the anti-terrorism squad (ironically) broke down the front gate and searched the premises. This is the second time since Chavez came to power that his police have raided the club. In 2004, they staged another raid just as children were being bused to school. Naturally no weapons were found and police have declined to provide any explanation for the search.
Chavez has engaged in a campaign to intimidate any opposition, and the 200-year-old Venezuelan Jewish community is perhaps most vulnerable because of Chavez’s deep antipathy towards the State of Israel and his extreme leftist policies. More than a year ago, Chavez declared in a Christmas Eve speech that “the world has wealth for all, but some minorities, the descendants of the same people that crucified Christ, have taken over all the wealth of the world."
Jewish leaders within Venezuela are intimidated. Their community of 15,000 is small and vulnerable. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but by some estimates close to half the community has left the country since Chavez came to power. Venzuela’s Jews are painfully aware of the alliance Chavez has struck with Iran ’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Cuba ’s Fidel Castro. On a recent visit to Washington D.C. , Gustavo Aristegui, who is the shadow foreign minister in Spain ’s opposition party, told a group at the Hudson Institute that Hamas and Hezbollah are now operating freely in Venezuela .
That Venezuelan Jews are afraid to protest is understandable. But what can we say of American Jews? The American Jewish Committee and the Presidents Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations have not publicly raised the issue of Venezuelan Jewry. They reflect the concern that increased publicity for this matter can hurt Venezuelan Jewry. Indeed, they have successfully communicated with Congress not to go public on this issue.
We couldn’t disagree more. First, some Jews in Venezuela have told us privately that we should speak out publicly on this issue. Indeed, the rabbi of a leading congregation in Venezuela told me (AW) in a private meeting held recently that while Venezuelan Jewry ought keep a low profile, American Jews must speak out publicly on their behalf. Chavez, he insisted, is sensitive to public opinion, and public hearings would serve to protect Venezuelan Jewry from future attacks.
Further, although we understand why some Venezuelan Jewry is silent, as they are fearful of a backlash, our responsibility is different. History has shown that silence in the face of anti-Semitism just doesn’t work. It didn't work during the Shoah, it didn’t work in the former Soviet Union at the beginning of the struggle for Soviet Jewry, it didn’t work when the Jews of Argentina were frightened to speak out against the Menem government, which was covering up the terrorist attack against AMIA, the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994, and it didn’t work when innocent community leaders were arrested in Iran in 1999.
What does it say to the world when a government can brazenly paint the Jews as enemies of the state and the rest of world Jewry—let alone the world—remains silent?
What does it say when the Jewish establishment pressures our own elected members of Congress not to speak out publicly on this issue?
Those of us who do not live under Chavez’s rule should be pressing Congress for public hearings and a congressional investigation into the security and religious freedom of Venezuelan Jewry, as well as the religious freedom of other opposition groups in Venezuela.
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About Our Organization
AMCHA - The Coalition for Jewish Concerns is an independent grassroots organization dedicated to raising a voice of conscience on behalf of endangered Jews around the world. This global effort includes countering anti-Semitism, advocating for Israel , preserving Holocaust memory, and other pro-Jewish activism.
AMCHA was founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss and like-minded colleagues, many of whom were leading activists in the movement to free Soviet Jewry. The tactics and principles emerging from that long struggle came to be known as spiritual activism and they have served as the driving force for AMCHA. Over the years AMCHA activists have been involved in hundreds of demonstrations, marches, vigils, hunger strikes, and acts of civil disobedience.
Some Ways That AMCHA Has Fulfilled It's Mission
Leading protests against major anti-Israel conferences at Rutgers University and the University of Michigan
Organizing pro-Israel rallies in New York that inspired the unprecedented rally in Washington, DC
Protesting the FBI director's appearance before a Muslim group that supports terrorism (and whose founder was recently arrested)
Coordinating an Interdenominational Rabbinic Committee's letter from 375 congregational rabbis cautioning President Bush's Road Map efforts
Leading the effort to prevent the desecration of Holocaust victim remains at the Belzec Death Camp in Poland
Convening vigils for the Columbia space shuttle tragedy, the 9th anniversary of the AMIA bombing in Argentina, and the American MIAs/POWs in Iraq
Amcha's diverse activities are inspired by the principle of Ahavat Yisrael, love of all Jews.
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AMCHA-CJC
3700 Henry Hudson Parkway
Bronx, NY 10463
P. 718.796.4730
F. 718.884.3206
E. info@amchacjc.org
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