Tiferet Israel Synagogue Attack (2009)

Tiferet Israel, formally the Gran Sinagoga Tiferet Israel de Caracas, was constructed between 1956 and 1963. It replaced the El Conde synagogue, which the Asociación Israelita de Venezuela inaugurated in 1939 and which was demolished in 1963 to make way for an avenue.[7][8] Tiferet Israel serves as Caracas's Great Sephardi Synagogue and has been described by the U.S. State Department as the city's oldest synagogue.[7][2]

The attack followed Israel's military operation in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009. The U.S. State Department recorded a marked increase in anti-Israel and antisemitic graffiti in Caracas and other Venezuelan cities during December 2008 and January 2009, alongside numerous telephone threats received by Jewish organizations.[2] Vandals had already spray-painted "Patrimony of Islam" on the exterior walls of Tiferet Israel on January 8, 2009.[9] On January 14, Venezuela officially suspended diplomatic relations with Israel, a development the State Department said further escalated antisemitism in the country.[2]

President Hugo Chávez had been a vocal critic of Israel for years. The Jewish Virtual Library reports that during the Second Intifada, the Chávez government sponsored public rallies attacking Israel and supporting the Palestinians, and that a mob attacked Tiferet Israel after one such rally in May 2004.[8] By January 2009, Chávez had expelled Israel's ambassador and severed diplomatic ties in protest over the Gaza operation.[4]

At approximately 10 p.m. on Friday, January 30, 2009, about 15 men forced their way into Tiferet Israel.[1] They remained inside until approximately 3 a.m. on January 31, an occupation of about five hours.[1] The intruders tied up a security guard, ransacked the administrative offices and the room where the Torah was kept, and left without covering their faces.[1]

The attackers sprayed antisemitic graffiti throughout the interior, including the phrases "Damn the Jews," "Jews out of here," "Israel assassins," "Get out," "Death to All," and "Damn Israel, Death," as well as an image of a devil.[1][9] They shattered religious objects, and a later account reported that Torah scrolls were found on the floor.[3][10] The assailants stole computers and administrative documents, removed recordings from the synagogue's security cameras, and took a computer database containing the names and addresses of Jews living in Venezuela.[1][3]

Investigators found a videotape of the intruders, and arrests announced on February 8 included seven Venezuelan police agents and four civilians.[4] Chávez said the alleged leader was a metropolitan police officer who had served as the synagogue rabbi's personal bodyguard for four years, stating: "What a coincidence, the gang leader is a metropolitan police officer who for the last four years was the personal bodyguard of the synagogue's rabbi."[4]

On February 4, 2009, representatives of the Confederation of Jewish Associations in Venezuela (CAIV) met with Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro, after which Venezuelan officials publicly condemned the attack.[2] The following day, President Chávez personally telephoned CAIV's president to condemn it and promised to guarantee the Jewish community's safety. By February 9, criminal charges had been filed against 11 alleged participants, including several police officers.[2]

The United States denounced the attack at the Organization of American States' Permanent Council on February 4.[2] Two resolutions condemning the attack were introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives: H. Res. 174 and H. Con. Res. 124.[11][3] The concurrent resolution quoted the Anti-Defamation League's assessment that the attack was directly related to an atmosphere of anti-Jewish intimidation promoted by President Chávez and his government apparatus, presenting this as the ADL's interpretation.[3]

Following the attack, neighbors and grassroots organizers helped paint over the antisemitic graffiti. Hundreds of non-Jewish students participated in a march against antisemitism, while diplomats from Canada, France, and the United States visited the synagogue and expressed support for the Jewish community.[9]

On February 8, investigators announced that seven Venezuelan police agents and four civilians had been arrested in connection with the attack.[4] The prosecutor's office said the suspects were apprehended in raids around Caracas and would face charges; the civilians included at least one synagogue security official.[4] A later account instead said that eight of the 11 arrested people were police officers, leaving an unresolved discrepancy in the reported breakdown.[5]

On February 9, prosecutors formally charged eight police officers and three other people.[12] The alleged offenses included conspiracy, aggravated theft, concealing weapons, religious disrespect, and embezzlement.[6] The 11 suspects remained in pretrial detention through the end of 2009 and the end of 2010 as proceedings moved slowly.[12][13]

On July 14, 2011, a court sentenced six of the 11 defendants to ten years in prison for the synagogue's vandalism and desecration.[6] The trial of the remaining five defendants began on July 15 and continued through the end of that year.[6]

The attack did not mark the end of antisemitic violence in Caracas. On February 26, 2009, unknown assailants threw a small explosive device into the Caracas Hebrew Center; no results from the investigation were known by the end of that year.[12] Jewish leaders reported that much of the antisemitic graffiti that appeared in 2009 remained visible into 2010, and they continued to express concern about antisemitic statements in official and government-affiliated media.[13]

Shortly before the synagogue attack, Venezuelan Jewish community president Abraham Levy Benshimol had warned: "Where we live, anti-Semitism is sanctioned. It comes from the president, through the government, and into the media."[1] The attack became a focal point for the community's argument that official rhetoric had created an environment permissive of antisemitic violence, an interpretation also advanced by the Anti-Defamation League.[1][9]

The physical consequences of the attack also affected the community's relationship with the Maripérez neighborhood. By 2013, the part of Caracas where Tiferet Israel stood was considered dangerous and was home to few Jews. That year, the community dedicated Tiferet Israel Este as a new main Sephardic synagogue in a safer part of the capital, with the 2009 attack and desecration of Torah scrolls cited as part of the reason for the relocation.[14]

Several aspects of the attack remained contested in public discourse. Chávez condemned the vandalism but suggested that political opponents or "oligarchs" seeking to harm his government had orchestrated it.[1][9] A later World Jewish Congress account said investigators believed the intruders had sought cash they thought was stored inside the synagogue.[5] A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs account said the incident was subsequently presented as the work of a criminal gang rather than an antisemitic group, although the antisemitic content of the graffiti was not in dispute.[15]

The Anti-Defamation League and Venezuelan Jewish community leaders advanced a different interpretation, arguing that government-sanctioned hostility toward Jews and Israel had created an atmosphere in which such an attack was foreseeable or encouraged.[9][3] The available sources do not conclusively resolve whether robbery, political provocation, ideological antisemitism, or some combination of motives principally drove the attack.