Venezuelan exodus swells Panama Jewish community
THE EXODUS of Venezuelan citizens has helped double Panama’s Jewish community in recent years says David Perets, the rabbi of Panama’s largest synagogue Shevet Ahim.
He was speaking during a ceremony at the Spanish Embassy in which 23 Sephardic Jews, mostly from Venezuela, received Spanish nationality, reports El Siglo
“We started leaving Venezuela during the first years of the (Hugo) Chavez government but have lately come out en masse,” said Armando Garzon, whose parents were born in Tetuan, when Morocco was a Spanish protectorate, and later migrated to Panama.
Garzon and five other members of his family received Spanish nationality, on Wednesday, March 16, following the adoption in 2015 of a law allowing all those who prove to be descendants of those expelled from Spain in 1492, to get Spanish citizenship.
“We will not return until things change in Venezuela socially and economically,” said Sara Behar Morhain, who also swore allegiance to the Spanish Constitution and the king of Spain.
Panama has is the only country ouside Israel that has had two Jewish presidents: Levy-Max Delvalle Maduro (1967) and his nephew Eric Arturo Delvalle (1985-1989).
The Jewish community today, owns some of the most important companies in Panama, says El Siglos including supermarkets, airlines, commercial and construction companies and also have a strong presence in the Colon Free Zone.
According to Isaac Btesh, president of the Central Hebrew Council of Panama, the presence of Jews in Panama dates back to the 15th century when the Catholic Monarch expelled from Spain all those who refused to convert to Christianity, Their numbers intensified with the 1849 Californian gold rush and the construction of the Panama Canal.
85% of Jews living in Panama are Sephardim, that is, descendants of Spanish Jews, unlike other countries in Latin America where the community is overwhelmingly Ashkenazi.
