Last week, Tablet Magazine’s Matthew Fishbane published some startling allegations about Venezuela’s treatment of its wealthy citizens — particularly Jews. Fishbane, who recently visited Bogotá, Colombia, noticed that there was an influx of Jewish immigrants fleeing their Venezuelan homeland.

It has been actions taken since the 1998 presidential election of Hugo Chávez, he contends, that have led to a noticeable level of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. As a result, half of Jews have responded by abandoning their homeland. In fact, the community, which was once comprised of tens of thousands of Jews, has purportedly been pared down to between 5,000 and 6,000.

In 2010, the Jerusalem Post made similar claims, citing violence, the economy and anti-Semitism for the decline. At that time, Salomon Cohen, the head of Confederacion de Asociaciones Israelitas de Venezuela (CAIV), a group that represents the nation’s Jewish community, said, “Ten years ago we had about 18,000 members. Now we have about 9,500.”

“First, the economy is not going like it was 10 years before. Second, security in general is very, very bad,” he said. “We have too many killers in Venezuela. We had about 200 attacks on the community. When they want to speak about Venezuela negatively they call it the ‘Israel of South America,’ for instance.”

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