Caracas – About 30 Jewish families from Venezuela are expected to leave their country and move to neighboring Colombia in 2010, Marcos Peckel, the head of the Bogota’s Jewish community, has told the Jewish news agency AJN. Peckel said a special committee has been established to receive Venezuelan Jews. He confirmed that the Colombian Jewish community was worried about the worsening situation of Jews in Venezuela..
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Several dozen Jewish families have reportedly moved to Colombia following the political situation in the country and the economic crisis that has hit Venezuela.
Peckel told AJN: “We are worried about the situation in Venezuela, and there are members from the Jewish community that already live in Colombia.” He added that although immigration was not massive”, estimates showed that “by the end of 2010, around 20 or 30 families from Venezuela will be living in Bogota,” Colombia’s capital.
The special committee would provide logistical help for the families and to students from Venezuela. “We help them find an apartment; we show them videos from schools, the synagogue and the sports club. We also help them get a cell phone or open a bank account. As there are many legal requirements, in most cases we act as guarantors”.
Peckel said the project was just beginning. “For Venezuelans, Colombia wasn’t a preferential destination; they would rather go to Panama, Israel, or Miami. But now, they are thinking of Colombia, too”.
“We are not promoting that Venezuelan Jews come here because such a thing wouldn’t be fair to Venezuela’s Jewish community. But we have to take care of the situation and we have set up telephone lines so they can be in touch with us whenever they want.”
Regarding diplomatic ties among Venezuela and Colombia, Peckel said that Jews were “as worried as any other Colombian citizen… If we add to that the belligerent language of [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chávez against Colombia, considering it as the Israel of Latin America, which for me is good, it could end in madness”.
in 1979 the west and israel warned iranian jews that the ayatollah would harm them. they lied but it stirred such a panic many left. those who stayed realized it was a hoax. they also said the same thing about castro and it was a lie. if you also notice just before yemen became a new “terror” nation, the security of jews suddenly became perilous.if the jews would trust and support chavez and venezuela more and the west and israel less, they will see he is only looking to keep the west from exploiting his oil reserves.
The jews in Hungary that didnt listen to warnings about hitler did real well too….
To south american jew:
Which world did you come from? Are you for real????
Are you saying that the jews in Iran and Yemen are doing ok? What about the ones in Cuba? if there are any left…they’re all intermarried because there is no freedom of anything in any of these places….I have a great idea !!! Why don’t you go to Venezuela and Support Chavez with his revolution (robolusion)!!!! As long as you do what he wants and he still has the money to pay you off, you will both be happy.Talk about exploiting the Venezuelan’s oil (not his).
Wake up and smell REALITY. Nobody loves us especially all these dictators.
A venezuelan Jew.
i remember as a kid in colombia how all the jews looked at venezuela as the goldene medinah .. people were safe, parnasa was good – not like in bogota
olam hafuch
chavez truly destroyed a paradise
first of all the jews in iran live quite well and these days there is almost no emigration. jews live very peacefully in iran so dont delude yourselves. the western media can portray anybody the way the want. truth is, the citizens of venezuela overwhelmingly voted him in because he promised to keep the west from exploiting their resources. america has a long history of overthrowing south american leaders (who we are told are “commies” and “dictators” but its nonsense) so american businesses can exploit south american resources from fruit to oil.
when will you guys learn america is on the path of rome? america is becoming too big is creating enemies? i have seen english and spanish interviews with him and he is harmless. all this talk of him being “hitler” and such is not true. he is very altruistic and only looking out for his citizens.
american newspapers lie.
i am appalled by these reports (and the ignorant comments) about Chavez and defining him as an “anti-semite” vechulu. Chavez has been the best thing that happened to Venezuela in a long time, the 90% of the country which is below poverty level now has food, medical, and in the process of having homes, all due to the fact that the Venezuela Natural Reserves are now being controlled by the government, and the income from it goes to support all of Chavez’s social initiatives.
He has no problem with Jews, VeAderaba, he has lots of Jewish Friends, and respects religion. He has a issue with America, and by default with any of Americas friends (including Israel). When he was voted in he was on good terms with America, only three years later (in 2002) he started attacking America because of declassified CIA documents (http://venezuelafoia.info) showing they participated in a coup against him.
These Jews moving to Colombia are because they aren’t making money anymore, and there are only two reasons for it: a) because you don’t adapt to the new rules, and stick to old tactics. b) you have issues with the government. Any Jew who is smart is making loads of money now (more than ever before).