With Chavez gone, Venezuelan Jews look warily to future

Published on March 12, 2013

The eyes of a dead man stare at visitors passing through immigration at Simon Bolivar International Airport. They follow drivers making the trek along the tortuous four-lane highway through a mountain range leading to town. And they reappear at public spaces throughout this city.

Palestinian city names street after Chavez

Published on March 11, 2013

A street in the West Bank city of al-Bireh was named for the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Long the bane of Venezuelan Jews, Chavez is gone. Now what?

Published on March 6, 2013

For more than a decade, Venezuelan Jews have been holding their breath, subject to the whims of a mercurial president who used his bully pulpit to intimidate, rail against Israel and embrace Iran.

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez dead from cancer

Published on March 5, 2013

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer, ending the socialist leader's 14-year rule of the South American country, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised speech on Tuesday.

Growing the fruits of peace in El Salvador

Published on July 5, 2012

Don Israel speaks no English, and I speak almost no Spanish. But I understood him well enough to realize that, as I began to plant one of the mango trees that would be placed in his field that day, he obviously thought I was doing it wrong.

Palestinian Authority, South Americans sign free trade pact

Published on December 21, 2011

A bloc of South American countries has signed a free trade agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

Jewish Agency establishes South American fund

Published on November 17, 2011

The Jewish Agency has established a Fund for the Jewish Future to strengthen the connection of young South American Jews to Israel and to the global Jewish community.

Peru recognizes Palestinian state

Published on January 24, 2011

Peru joined several Latin and South American states in recognizing a Palestinian state. “Today the government communicated to the ambassador of Palestine in Lima recognition of the Palestinian state as free and sovereign,” Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde said Monday, according to reports. Belaunde did not specify the borders of the state endorsed by Peru.

Jewish conspiracy theories running amok in Honduras

By Brad A. Greenberg
Published on October 5, 2009

‘The Longing’ documents crypto-Jews caught between two worlds

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on November 7, 2008

When Gabriela Böhm set out to create her documentary, "The Longing: The Forgotten Jews of South America," several years ago, she hoped to profile an as-yet-undiscovered secret community of Crypto Jews -- descendants of Jews forced to flee the Spanish Inquisition who continued practicing rituals covertly.

Under Chavez, anti-Semitism way up in Venezuela

By Brad A. Greenberg
Published on July 8, 2008

300 ways to make it a multi-cultural seder

By Amy Klein
Published on April 17, 2008

That means, "Why is this night different from all other nights," in Sranan.

But what's Sranan, you ask? Sranan is the primary language spoken in South America's Suriname, which has one of the oldest Jewish populations on the American continent. Is is also spoken in Aruba, Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles -- with a total of 426,400 speakers today.

Venezuela’s Jews prosper but keep wary eye on future with Hugo Chavez

By Hal Weitzman
Published on March 29, 2007

The floor of the small synagogue in the center of Coro, the oldest Jewish house of prayer in Venezuela, is covered in a thick layer of sand intended to recall the Children of Israel's time in the Sinai Desert. It is also, however, a symbol of the transience of Jewish settlement in South America.

A Passover Surprise in Patagonia

By Robin Esrock
Published on April 6, 2006

"So, where are you doing the seder?" asks my mother, on the other end of my computer's crackly speakers. I had just arrived in Patagonia, a beautiful region of Argentina, blessed with sparkling blue lakes, snow-capped mountains and forests on fire with the colors of fall.

Eulogies:Benjamin Alan Eder

Published on February 14, 2002

Benjamin Alan Eder died on Dec. 11, 2001, lost at sea along with three other men aboard the F/V Nesika, at age 21.