Background Information

The history of the Venezuelan Jews dates back to 17th century when a group of marranos arrived and settled within Caracas and Maracaibo. However, the actual Jewish community was not established until the middle of the 19th century. In 1907, the Israelite Beneficial Society which later became the Israelite Society of Venezuela in 1919, was created in order to unite the new Jewish community.By 1917, the number of Jewish citizens was up to 475, rising to 882 in 1926. Throughout the 1920's and 1930's, with the large wave of immigrants from North Africa and Eastern Europe, the Jewish community began to develop. Immigration continued until 1934 when Venezuela began to impose specific restrictions on Jewish immigration, which remained in effect until the 1950's. By 1950, with small waves of immigration from Eastern and Central Europe, there were 6,000 Jews in Venezuela. The largest influx of Jews was during World War II and the 1967 Six-Day War when Sephardi Jews from Morocco settled mostly in Caracas, bringing the number of Jewish citizens up to 45,000.
The Venezuelan Jewish Community works under a central umbrella organization, La Confederation de Asociaciones Israelitas de Venezuela(CAIV), with which the American Jewish Community signed an association agreement last year.Within Venezuela there are 15 Orthodox synagogues, and a Jewish all-in one campus, Hebraica. Hebraica hosts the nursery, elementary, middle and high school and also serves as a country club bringing the community together for sporting activities and happy occasions. The community is close-knit and the level of participation is high, the connection to Israel strong and intermarriage rates are significantly lower than those of America and Britain.
As of 2007,due to concerns of the rising national anti-Semitism, one fifth of the 20,000 strong Jewish population had emigrated elsewhere. There is widespread anti-Semitic and anti- Israel sentiments within the media, including the two biggest newspapers El Universal and El National. An editorial written by Maria de los Angeles Serrano in El National stated that Israeli Jews "are today strangulating,deporting,placing under closure and killing the Palestinian people with the same enthusiasm as their persecutors, the Nazis." There have repeatedly been anti-Semitic acts against the Jewish community. In 2004 Hebraica was raided by the armed national investigative police, under false accusations that Israel may have participated in the murder of Venezuelan government prosecutor Danilo Anderson and that the community may have been hiding him.The police locked the doors with the children inside and searched the school. In 2007 Hebraica was raided once again the day of a government referendum under false suspicion that there were drugs and weapons within the country club. On January 31,2009 the community's oldest and main synagogue, was severely vandalized by a gang. On February 26,2009 a homemade bomb was thrown into the Orthodox Beit Shmuel in Caracas.
President Hugo Chavez has also been constantly accused of anti-Semitism. In 2004 after he won the referendum, Chavez told the opposition not to let themselves,"Be poisoned by those wandering Jews. Don't let them lead you to a place they want you to be led." He once compared Spain's Jose Maria Aznar to Hitler. He has close ties to Norbeto Ceresole, the Argentinian author famous for his denial of the Holocaust and his conspiracy theories about Jewish plans to conquer the World. Chavez has been accused of anti-Semitism by the Anti Defamation League and The Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In 2009 the World Conference against Anti-Semitism claimed "an average of 45 pieces per month" of anti-Semitic writing during 2008 and "more than five per day" during Operation Castled in January 2009 were cited within the Chavez-sponsored media.
The current situation for the Jewish community is extremely grave.The country is surrounded by anti-Semitic and anti- Israel sentiments. Chavez's power is on the rise and no one knows what he is capable of. If the president is anti-Semitic there is not much hope for the Jews who live there.There are thousands who have emigrated due to fears of being attacked once again. If emigration continues at the rate it is now, the community will be at high risk of extinction.

Link for Information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Venezuela