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Friday December 7, 2007

Despite turmoil in Venezuela, remaining Jews do well

by larry luxner
jta

caracas, venezuela | The question of whether Jews have a future in Venezuela seemed far from the minds of the 900 or so people at the wedding of Jessica Horowitz and Alberto Israel.

On Dec. 1, the night before a crucial referendum on Venezuela’s constitution and a brazen raid on a Jewish social club, Jews at the Union Israelita de Caracas synagogue in suburban San Bernardino were singing, dancing, eating and drinking with abandon.

In a country where whiskey is cheaper than milk, bottles of chardonnay and champagne flowed freely, and women decked out in diamonds chatted among the kosher treats in the shul’s enormous banquet hall.

Despite a perilous political situation and the fact that roughly half of Venezuela’s Jews have emigrated during the past eight years, most of them that have stayed live quite well.

Many of Venezuela’s estimated 12,000 Jews enjoy luxuries most Jews elsewhere only can dream about: large sprawling houses with panoramic mountain views, full-time live-in maids, second homes in South Florida, expensive cars. Most of Venezuela’s biggest shopping malls and clothing factories are owned by Jews.

Some Jews, however, have taken flight under the regime of President Hugo Chávez, who has nationalized major industries, embraced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and allowed expressions of anti-Semitism on state-controlled media.

A few hours before the polls opened Dec. 2, federal police raided La Hebraica, the main Jewish social club in Caracas, ostensibly looking for weapons and explosives. Though the police left empty-handed and no major damage was done, the incident stoked Jewish fears in Venezuela’s capital about the government of Chávez.

When the results of the referendum on Chávez’s package of constitutional reforms finally came in, many Jews were relieved. Venezuela’s 26 million people awoke Dec. 3 to learn that Chávez’s proposals to make the country socialist and allow him to run for re-election indefinitely had been defeated by the slimmest of margins.

Still, not everyone in the Jewish community can complain about Chávez’s iron-fisted rule. In fact, some businesspeople have benefited immensely from his administration. One Jewish entrepreneur who asked not to be named said that some Jews have profited from the chaos that has emerged from rampant inflation that has dramatically eroded the value of Venezuela’s national currency, the bolivar.

“Business is very good for people who import because they get dollars at government-subsidized rates, and they can then sell at a very good profit,” he said.

The U.S. dollar is worth only 2,150 bolivares at the official rate, but it can fetch more than 6,000 bolivares on the illegal but largely tolerated black market.

“In my case, the government can control and pressure you, and make your life miserable,” the businessman said.

The Chávez government has made no secret of its distaste for “capitalists,” which includes the Jewish community.

Despite the resentment, “we still think this is the best place to live,” said Rodolfo Osers, a civil engineer who administers ORT programs in Venezuela.

“Chávez and his ideas are not enough to make us leave at this moment,” Osers said. “But we have to be prepared. Ten years ago, if someone asked you to work in the United States or Spain, you would have said no. But now, if any company or headhunter asks if you want a good job in the States, you won’t even think about it. You’ll accept.”

Fifteen synagogues serve the Jews of Caracas, home to nearly the entire Jewish population of Venezuela. The shuls are Orthodox, though only 200 Jews in the country keep kosher.

The Jewish community is divided equally between Ashkenazis and Sephardis, with both groups enjoying general prosperity in an oil-exporting country where 95 percent of the population endures grinding poverty.

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