By Dr. Yvette Alt Miller | Aish | January 5, 2026
Last Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Venezuela Pynchas Brener reflects on Manduro/Talkline With Zev Brenner
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Jews have played a central role in Venezuela for generations.
Venezuela has been home to a Jewish presence for nearly half a millennium. Here’s a brief history of Jews in Venezuela and the crucial role Jews have played in Venezuelan history. That history is especially relevant today, as Venezuelan officials once again recycle an old antisemitic trope, falsely claiming that the recent capture of Nicolás Maduro has “Zionist” motivations—echoing centuries of conspiratorial accusations used to scapegoat Jews during moments of political crisis.
Secret Jews
Jews likely settled in the territory of present-day Venezuela close to 500 years ago. Before European conquest, the coastal areas of Venezuela were home to native Americans who built their houses on stilts to protect them from the area’s frequent floods. When Christopher Columbus and later explorers sighted Venezuela in 1498, it reminded them of buildings along the canals of Venice in Italy; they dubbed the area “little Venice,” or Venezuela.
After a period of German exploration, Spain began settling the area, eventually forming the Kingdom of New Grenada, made up of present-day Columbia, Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador. Spain imposed their harsh Inquisition on colonies in Latin America, forbidding Jews from living in Spanish territories and imposing the death penalty on anyone found to be practicing Jewish rites in secret. Nevertheless, historians believe that some crypto-Jews, Jews who converted to Christianity yet maintained their Jewish practice and identity in secret, lived in South America. In 1601, King Felipe III gave permission for Jews who’d converted to Catholicism in Portugal, likely including crypto-Jews, to settle in Spanish colonies; many moved to the Venezuelan towns of Maracaibo and Caracas.
Early Venezuela was particularly exposed to Jews given its proximity to the island of Curacao, just 40 miles off its coast. Originally settled by Spain, Curacao fell into Dutch hands in the 1630s and – free from the strictures of Spain’s Inquisition – began to develop a vibrant Jewish community which continues to this day.
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