A diplomatic cable from Caracas (published by Wikileaks today) confirms that the Galuth is no place for Jews. Once, the Jews of Venezuela were the wealthiest of Latin America, prospering with the oil boom and a growing economy. Many Jews from Argentina emmigrated to Venezuela and picked up the dollar bills that were metaphorically covering the pavement. I remember a friend of my parents who started to make ugly vynil handbags in Caracas and almost instantly became very rich.
Things changed radically with Hugo Chavez, to the point that most of the Jews have emigrated to Miami and the rest are begging protection from the US Ambassador in Caracas. A cable reveals that leaders of the Jewish community of Venezuela complained to Ambassador Meyer about having to meet with the foreign minister rather than the interior minister to raise their concerns, giving the impression that they were perceived as foreigners. The Jewish leaders said they were worried they would be turned into second-class citizens (sic!) and asked to strengthen ties with the US Embassy in case of an outburst of violence against the community (that is, they were expecting pogroms and begged for American protection).
Given the ongoing sense of threat, CAIV members agreed on the need for close relations with the US and other embassies as a form of diplomatic protection for the Jewish community.This reminds me of the Jews in Damascus hundred and fify years ago, when they begged European consuls to grant them some kind of extra-territorial status hoping for protection. And the Budapest ghetto in 1944-45, when Jews didn't dare to walk the street without protection papers from the Red Cross, the Swedish or the Swiss Consulate, the Vatican, or from anyone still respected by the local Nazi criminals. Pic.: The Swedish "Wallenberg" Schutz-Pass, that saved the lives of hundreds of Hungarian Jews.
The shocking truth is that the American Ambassador in Caracas is reporting current events, not something that happened long ago. Living "physical" Jews are begging in our days for some kind of American schutz-pass. They are not picturesque folk schtetl-Jews speaking in nasal Yiddisch "jargon" (toward whom young American Jews may feel little empathy), but regular professionals and businessmen one meets in the street. They are people like me and they. It needs little imagination to see that this can happen to any other Jew anywhere in the diaspora.
Another angle of the secret report of Jewish community leaders meeting with the American Ambassador in Caracas is how the local dictator Hugo Chavez will react to it. He may perceive the Jews meeting with the "enemy" as confirmation that they are unreliable Venezuelans and a foreign element in the Bolivarian Venezuela he is striving to build. Wikileaks publication harms Venezuelan Jews, but also destroys illusions and forces us to look at reality as it is. Which, for Jews in the Galuth, is not rosy.
11 comments:
The Jews of Vienna, Berlin, Budapest, etc. were not picturesque folk schtetl-Jews, but regular professionals and businessmen one meets in the street, also.
K
I know what is your point, but young Jews tend to put psychic distance between the Jews of Eastern Europe, imagining them very different from themselves, concluding that "they were different from me". But there is no way to put any distance from contemporary Caracas Jews. They are like Miami, Boston or Buenos Aires Jews of today, mostly middle - upper class professionals and businessmen. Their Judaism is secular and weak, Venezuela was a paradise with no antisemitic tradition at all, yet they find themselves enacting the same role and making the same petitions that Jews always did in the Galuth. to me, it is very impressive.
This is a very common denial technique- X had a heart attack but it couldn't happen to me because X was overweight. Y had a car accident but it couldn't happen to me because I never drink before driving and Y consumed a beer. X and Y are "different from me" so I can sleep easy and not worry that their fate will be mine.
Even knowing this, I read about the Jews of Venezuela and I say that they are NOT just like me - Venezuela is firmly part of the Latin tradition of rule by caudillo, punctuated by rare episodes of democracy. Its population consists of a mestizo "have not" majority - this is a combustible combination even in a democracy. The US has one of the strongest "rule of law" systems of anywhere on earth - over two centuries under the same written constitution.
Still, the whole history of goles is that there are no permanent homes for the Jews (unless they convert and are Jews no more) - every "paradise" has come to an end sooner or later though not necessarily within one lifetime. The question is not whether the galut is bad in the long run, it is whether the alternative (Israel) is better? Israel, needless to say, is not without its own dangers. Notice that the Jews of Venezuela are not rushing to Tel Aviv - they are moving to Miami.
K
Regarding psychic distance, that's true - visiting the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, in a strange way I identified more with her, living in a Western city with indoor plumbing and movie theaters, etc. than I did with my own parents living in their shtetl world surrounded by peasants in muddy boots. Even before the war, their lives were alien to my reality whereas Anne's was not that different.
K
for the Jews (unless they convert and are Jews no more) - every "paradise" has come to an end sooner or later though not necessarily within one lifetime.
Britain has been good to their Jews for centuries. But Anglo tolerance of Jews will come flying apart when Kate Middleton becomes Queen of England.
K, You are searching for differences to be able to say "It cannot happen here". You say Venezuela has a mestizo population and a Spanish caudillo political tradition. True. I am not saying that USA's demography is the same or will be the same in a generation. Each goles is different: it was different in Aleppo under Turkish rule, it was different in Budapest occupied by the Nazis. Somehow, in a way that I dont really understand, Jews find themselves re-enacting the same role, being persecuted and needing protection.
Regarding Miami vs Jerusalem, I think that in the short term Miami is preferible, but in the long term our grandchildren's children will meet in Jerusalem. But of course I am a Zionist.
Not only do the Jews keep re-enacting the same role, but in, for example Asia, overseas Chinese occupy the same ecological niche as the Jews did in E. Europe (shop keepers, business owners, etc.) and they keep ending up in the same trouble as the Jews do too. In Uganda, this role was played by Indians, with the same results again. It's like Chekov said - if you put the gun on the table in Act 1 it has to get used before Act 3 is over.
K
Britain has been good to their Jews for centuries. But Anglo tolerance of Jews will come flying apart when Kate Middleton becomes Queen of England.
Please pardon my ignorance on this subject, but why would KM becoming Queen incite antisemitism in Britain? I really don't understand how one event could lead to the other.
I don't see Kate Middleton as an anti-Semite; in fact I don't think she has expressed any political views whatsoever.
My criterion is simply this: she should represent her own people, and not try to be Queen of the Commonwealth.
Anon.
Kate Middleton seems a nice girl. She seems well capable of playing the Queen role. The royalty has/had magic because of "royal blood" and real power. If the blood is fully diluted with commoner blood and there is no more power at all, what is royalty?
Perhaps the Anonymous commenter thinks Kate Middleton is herself a Jew.
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