Imagine you're a Jew living in a country where you don't feel safe practicing your religion.
Imagine your place of business being smeared with anti-Semitic messages, your synagogue attacked and desecrated, and the school your children attend raided on trumped up suspicions of conspiracy.
Imagine the media calling for your people's expulsion, articles suggesting your religion is the root of the world's ills.
Imagine -- perhaps worst of all -- that these actions and messages are being sponsored by your own government.
Now imagine you speak Spanish.
Because what I'm describing isn't pre-war Germany, but present-day Venezuela.
I recently traveled on assignment for HDNet's World Report to Caracas, Venezuela with correspondent Jennifer London to investigate claims by the Jewish community that anti-Semitism has taken hold of the country. We spent a week traveling around the capitol city, talking to leaders of the community, and we witnessed first hand the threats against the Venezuelan Jews.
"In my case, I feel a duty to say it like it is," Sammy Eppel, a Jewish activist in Venezuela, tells us. "Being afraid -- of course I'm afraid. I mean, I have a family, I have children -- I've been threatened. But I hope that those things would never actually happen -- those things that they promise me over the phone that they're going to do to me or to my family."
But while anti-Semitism exists all over the world, Jewish Venezuelans say their case is different -- because in Venezuela, they tell us, the anti-Semitism stems directly from the government.
"At least in my case, for the first time in recent history, I mean, we see what I would call government sponsored anti-Semitism in a Western country," says Eppel.
When we first heard this from Eppel, and many others in the community, we were shocked - and even a little dubious. State-sponsored anti-Semitism... in 2010? ... in Venezuela? On the surface, it didn't make sense.
But as we continued our investigation, the evidence continued to build. There was the anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on the synagogues and businesses owned by Jews; there was the police raid on the Jewish school Hebraica that was based on a "tip" that the school was involved in an assassination plot [no evidence was ever found]; there were the frequent publications in the state-run media calling for the expulsion of the Jews; and there was even the anti-Semitic rhetoric of President Hugo Chavez himself.
Perhaps it is this last example that Jewish Venezuelans fear the most. When your own president is comparing Zionists to Nazis on national television, and insinuating that it is people of your religion that have all the wealth in the world ("the descendants of those who crucified Christ"), and then publicly expels the ambassador of Israel during a war that your country has nothing to do with, I can understand why you might start to feel nervous.
But why? What could possibly be the motivation?
Maybe that is most shocking of all....
Find out Tuesday night by watching World Report on HDNet at 9pm ET (6pm Pacific) in the world premier "Chavez's War Against the Jews."
Finally, one community's danger brought to light.
Watch "Chavez's War Against the Jews" on HDNet's World Report Tuesday, May 4th at 9pm ET, 6pm PT. The show will re-air Wednesday night. Check your local listings for details.
For a preview of this documentary, click below:
UPDATE: Soon after this post went up, I received a message from one of my sources in Caracas saying: "the government is asking the [Jewish] community to stop the transmission of your program.' It said further, 'Our answer [to the government] will surely be that any request should be addressed to the network and that our community has no such powers and being believers in freedom of the press we will never be inclined to even make such request.'"
Follow Nora Zimmett on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nzimmett
"Anti-Semitism or Anti-Imperialism in Venezuela?"
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3148
http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php?19199
Google translation:
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=es&tl=en&u=http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php%3F19199&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhjCB2QlyZWF8TvYLb8d5ftQjp_MoA
A note to the reader: we have featured this article found in one of the most rabid
Venezuelan government sponsored media outlets, to showcase the level and
sophistication of Anti Semitic rants being disseminated in Venezuela. The arguments
are a call to action and endanger the very existence of jewry in Venezuela.
How to support Palestine against the
artificial State of Israel?
Article by EMILIO SILVA, published online by
APORREA.ORG January 20th, 2009
About the author: Emilio José Silva ChapellÃn is a professor at
the UBV, Venezuelan Bolivarian University.
SOURCE: http://www.aporrea.org/internacionales/a70792.html
ï€ Denounce publicly, with names and last names the members of powerful Jewish groups
present in Venezuela, indicating the companies they own in order to establish a boycott. For
example: not going ever again to the Sambil Shopping Center owned by the Zionist thief Salomon Cohen,ï€ In that respect, capitalist agents as these Zionist Hebrews are the thing that hurts them most is
the pocket (including Jehovah) it is inappropriate to buy their products and go to their stores
To question the existence in Venezuela of educational institutions for Jews . Public, massive, periodic concentrations not only in front of the Israeli embassy but also in front of all Jewish institutions located in places like Sebucán and Los Chorros of Sucre
Municipality, Miranda State, San Bernardino in Caracas. It is good to remember the
Synagogue in the Caracas sector of Mariperez. .
ï€
Note from Aporrea: This article has been removed because it recommended discriminatory measures, and in the opinion of our staff and many of our users, is antisemitic.
But while I am in total solidarity with the synagogue which was attacked some 15 months ago, I have not seen any other acts of violence against Jews. Yes, the graffiti is repugnant but graffiti is hardly an accurate barometer of public opinion!
Any nitwit can gain attention by spraying graffiti on a gravestone, as has happened my times before to both Muslim, Christian and Jewish cemeteries. It is disgusting but does that really prove that the return of the storm troopers?
Above all, the TV program presents no new evidence of attacks against Jews.
I would really like to know the attitude of the Venezuelan opposition. All my Venezuelan friends have a positive attitude toward Jews, including those who are mildly Chavez. (Unsurprizingly, I have no rabid Chavistas as friends!).
Unfortunately, this sounds reminds me of the little boy who called wolf once too often. The American Israel lobby would have us believe that all of Europe is in an anti-Semitic rage, which is obviously baloney, so they are going to have to provide more evidence before I go on their word!
For God's sake--the Austrians knew Waldheim was a Nazi and still elected him.
Anti-Semitism exists everywhere there are Jews, just as anti-Americanism exists everywhere, even where there are no Yanks...
...and that includes America (and in spades!).
Anti-Semitism is a type of hate just as the sort of bigotry and selfishness ideology that justifies the expulsion of a people from its homeland and its colonization by foreigners is also HATE.
However, Jews flock to Europe every year, including to live. As such, it is morally and politically wrong and foolish to condemn an entire continent, especially when America is no stranger to hate, the last time I checked.
As for Waldheim, he was elected because he was a very good leader, despite his service in the SS. I strongly disagree with the Austrians on that score, but the election of one man in a state representing 7 million people (out of 320 million in the EU) hardly constitutes a tidal wave!
As the "other" politicians, I do not know who you are talking about. If it is Le Pen, he has always received a huge chunk of the Jewish vote in France.
You see IF this is true as a Jew I have to demand my president declare war on Venezuela.
This "news" has nothing to do with Venezuela being friendly to Iran by any chance?
If Nora had not whipped up emotion by comparing Chavez to Hitler I'd not be so worried that my emotions are being toyed with for another purpose: invasion or covert ops to other throw the government of Venezuela.
I simply will have to do my own research.
I will say this about Chavez. One of his favorite writers Noam Chomsky is Jewish-American.
http://www.linktv.org/programs/chavez
So much for the press freedom Nora says she promotes in her article.
noticed your comment this morning and hopped on over. I've had exactly the same problem. Many posts that were entirely acceptable a month ago now never make it to the list of posted messages.
Yet some pretty vile anti-Arab/Muslim comments that are nothing more than posts of bigotry seem to escape despite my having flagged it as "Abusive" so I doubt I'll earn my Huff scout Moderator badge;)
Anyway good luck trying to find the right wording.
Seems like it will always be okay to slam brown people...but you sure better not slam the people doing the slamming...why, that would be un-American and anti-semitic.
If I knew what button to push, I'd get rid of my badge.
For example, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara both had Jewish roots (Fidel has quite proudly referred to that) as do many activists for social reform. Even Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan has claimed to have Jewish roots, much as some might try to paint them as anti-semitic!
2) Che's mother, despite the claims made by some, was NOT of Russian Jewish descent. As far as her family can be traced - which is several centuries - they are of Spanish and Irish (Co. Mayo to be precise) Catholic descent
3) One writer claimed that Farrakhan claimed (Only to him) that he may be of partially Jewish descent. The reason why people accuse Farrakhan of being anti-Semitic is that he's made frequent blatantly anti-Semitic comments
At a presentation by Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan, of Temple B'nai Israel, Albany, GA. Speaking on "Fidel Castro the Jew?" he quoted sources who report the Cuban leader acknowledging to them purported Jewish ancestry. He also reported "that many of Castro's childhood friends called him judÃo because he had not been baptized until the age of seven."
Rabbi Kaplan added that "most of the speculation about Fidel's Jewish ancestry deals with his father Angel, who was a Spaniard from Galicia," and reported Castro's daughter, Alina Fernández, writing recently "that he is descended from a Turkish Jew on his mother's side."
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Was_fidel_castro's_mother_jewish
My interest in this is genealogical and of a person I admire. I also note many right wing Jewish sites take Che Guevara's purported Jewishness as an insult and note similarities in claims he committed atrocities against Havana's Jewish population with such made about Chavez. I haven't found any links to Che's background, yet :)
and while there are some people I wouldn't bother convincing about myself, I do feel that Minster Farrakhan's words from Jesse Jackson's campaign have been distorted over the last 25 years, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Farrakhan#.22Gutter_religion.22
So why don't YOU read and decide for yourself instead of relying on second hand quotes?
I have myself come under attack from Israel's more rabid defenders, so I am definitely not going to tag someone as an anti-Semite without just cause, but the mugging on Wall Street had NOTHING to do with a Jewish conspiracy but just plain old greed of which Jews and Gentiles alike have been guilty.
As for Chavez, his embrace of Holocaust denier Ahmadinejad is repugnant. The would be Venezuelan caudillo has made a shambles of the Venezuelan economy, so it does not surprize me that some of his supporters would seek a scapegoat.
I am not saying Chavez is behind such actions, but, given his embrace of the world's leading Holocaust denier and supporter of the totalitarian Hezbollah and Hamas, I can understand Jewish fears in Venezuela!
And I hate to keep saying this, except to point out why this is a personal slur. My wife is Jewish, and therefore my children, partly so, and I value them and the many friends I have gained thus far more than you can imagine.
My differences with some Jews might be political and spiritual, but not racist, and I dislike the change in the culture that allows that slur to be thrown out as a means of stifling debate.
I am in no way a supporter of the Iranian regime, but given today's political framework some sort of alliance between the two nations seems fairly reasonable.
As far as Hizbollah, frustration with the "peace process" makes some very strange bedfellows. Norm Finkelstein has expressed his support of their resistance as well, and despite what Alan Dershowitz says, he is hardly an anti-Semite. Supporting a resistance movement doesn't always mean supporting their political platform.