This week in power: WoW scuffling, IRS scandal, Newseum, Shavuot message

By Danny Groner
Published on May 16, 2013

Venezuelan president: My grandparents were Jewish

Published on May 14, 2013

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, denying that his government has an anti-Semitic bent, said his grandparents were of Sephardic Jewish descent.

Capriles, grandson of Holocaust survivors, calling for recount after losing Venezuelan presidency

Published on April 18, 2013

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, is calling for a recount after narrowly losing the country’s presidential election.

Leaving Venezuela

Published on March 28, 2013

Sitting outside a Starbucks coffee shop in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., a small city north of Miami Beach, Paul Hariton recalled the dramatic night in 2002 when he and his wife decided to leave their native Venezuela.

Venezuela Jews unveil new main Sephardic synagogue

Published on March 18, 2013

The Jewish community of Caracas officially dedicated the Venezuelan city's new main Sephardic synagogue, Tiferet Israel Este.

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.

Venezuela to probe Chavez cancer ‘poisoning’ accusation

Published on March 12, 2013

Venezuela will set up a formal inquiry into suspicions that the late President Hugo Chavez's cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad, the government said.

After lavish Chavez funeral, Maduro sworn in as interim president of Venezuela

Published on March 11, 2013

Nicolas Maduro, the handpicked successor of the late Hugo Chavez, was sworn in as the interim president of Venezuela amid opposition calls that the choice was unconstitutional.

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.

Documents show Venezuela spying on Jewish community

Published on February 5, 2013

The Venezuelan human rights group Espacio Anna Frank says its goal is to promote tolerance by teaching the life story of the teenage diarist murdered by the Nazis.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wins re-election, defeating grandson of Holocaust survivors

Published on October 9, 2012

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez won re-election, defeating Henrique Capriles Radonsky, the grandson of Holocaust survivors

Chavez allies turn on Venezuelan opposition leader

Published on February 14, 2012

President Hugo Chavez's allies are bombarding Venezuela's newly anointed opposition leader with attacks ranging from the legitimacy of the primary vote to his sexuality and Jewish roots.

Son of Shoah survivors to challenge Chavez

Published on February 13, 2012

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, will challenge President Hugo Chavez in upcoming elections.

Iranian, Venezuelan leaders rebuff U.S., joke about having nuclear bomb

Published on January 9, 2012

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez lavished each other with praise on Monday, mocked U.S. disapproval and joked about having an atomic bomb at their disposal.

Ahmadinejad to visit Latin American nations

Published on December 29, 2011

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he will tour four Latin American nations in January.

Rival to Chavez, demonized for his Jewish roots, is opposition’s new hope in Venezuela

Published on June 6, 2011

As someone who has spent his entire political career opposing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Gov. Henrique Capriles Radonski is accustomed to rough handling. But even he was taken aback by the viciousness that erupted two years ago outside the yellow walls of the old colonial home that now serves as his government seat.

Venezuelan Jews protest broadcast of ‘Protocols’

Published on May 25, 2011

Venezuela’s largest Jewish advocacy group has protested to the government a state-run radio broadcast that positively referenced the anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." In a formal complaint filed this week with the Public Ministry, the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations denounced the broadcast in which journalist Cristina Gonzalez read the infamous text and suggested that listeners also should read it.

Grandson of Holocaust survivors to challenge Chavez

Published on May 5, 2011

The governor of Venezuela’s Miranda state, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, announced he will challenge President Hugo Chavez next year. Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski said he wants to be “president of all Venezuela.” The state of Miranda includes part of Caracas. Capriles said he will seek the endorsement of what has been a divided opposition. In an effort to field a unified candidate, the opposition has scheduled a primary for February 2012.

Chavez tells Israelis: Disobey ‘genocidal’ government

Published on September 4, 2009

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the Israeli people not to support their government, which he described as genocidal on Friday, the second day of his trip to Syria.

Israeli Official Describes Venezuelan Embassy Ouster

Published on April 2, 2009

On Feb. 6, Shlomo Cohen, Israel’s ambassador in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital city, received an unwelcome and distressing phone call. The government of Venezuela was expelling all Israeli diplomats and staff — they had 72 hours to leave the country.

Venezuela Should Repair Its Ties to Jewish Community

Published on March 30, 2009

Venezuelan Jews historically have enjoyed positive relations with the Venezuelan government. It is precisely because of the embracing nature of Venezuelan society toward the Jewish people that the recent anti-Semitism cloaked in anti-Israel and anti-Zionist terms is so disturbing.

JEWISHJOURNAL.COM EXCLUSIVE: An Eyewitness Recounts the Day Venezuela Booted Israel’s Embassy

Published on March 26, 2009

On February 6th, 2009, Shlomo Cohen, Israeli Ambassador in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, received an unwelcome and distressing phone call. The government of Venezuela was expelling all Israeli diplomats and staff – they had 72 hours to leave the country.

Venezuela Jews Rebuild After Synagogue Attack

Published on March 18, 2009

CARACAS (JTA) -- The quiet on a residential street in this eastern Venezuelan city is shattered by construction crews as workers perched on a scaffolding place panels of marble on the external wall of a two-story synagogue.

Q&A with Argentine Ambassador Hector Timerman

Published on October 23, 2008

" . . .In Argentina, we don't think that one country has to base its relationship with another country on a relationship which that country has with a third nation . . ."

British boycott moves reveal anti-Israel bias

By Alan Dershowitz
Published on June 14, 2007

The British Union cares less about journalists or freedom of the press than it does about blindly condemning the Jewish state...it has everything to do with anti-Israel bigotry.

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.

Fate of Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance rests with Israeli high court

Published on December 7, 2006

Reading Venezuela’s Enigmatic President

By Julie Drucker
Published on March 16, 2006

"There is no anti-Semitism in Venezuela, we don't know what that is," declared Bernardo Alvarez, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, in his recent two-day trip to Los Angeles to discuss his country's Bolivarian Revolution and the changing political landscape of Latin America.

A Chilling Raid

By Julie Drucker
Published on December 9, 2004

None of the 1,500 children at a Jewish day school in Caracas will forget drop-off on the morning of Nov. 29. On that morning last week, 25 government investigators, some of them armed and hooded, intercepted busloads of kids and turned them away.

Jews in Venezuela: A Vanishing Community?

By Julie Drucker
Published on January 9, 2003

These are sad days for the Jewish community in Venezuela as many begin to question whether this country, once so hospitable to Jewish life, can still be called home.

As the country faces nearly its sixth week of a devastating strike calling for early elections or the resignation of President Hugo Chávez, Venzuela's economy, already set to shrink by 6 percent this year, has been hurled into utter chaos. Poverty levels are estimated at 80 percent -- a tragedy for one of the wealthiest and most stable countries in Latin America.