So, I found sections of AMCHA's Rabbi Avi Weiss' diary quite interesting:
A DIARY OF RABBI AVI WEISS’ TRIP TO VENEZUELA
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
As our plane lands in Caracas I go over in my mind the reasons for our coming here. Our goal is to express solidarity with our sisters and brothers; to learn facts on the ground; and to speak with community leaders, rabbis and clergy of other faiths with the goal of helping to map out future policy.
...Just the idea that Jews are being attacked in Venezuela emotionally upsets me to the core. I pray my students come to understand that this kind of trip is part of what it means to serve in the rabbinate, that the best speech is not what we say but what we do, and that rabbis should not leave advocacy to Jewish defense agencies. Their work is important, but rabbis see these issues from a religious, spiritual perspective, giving its politics different meaning.
On the ride from the airport to the home of our host, Rabbi Pynchas Brener, we saw abject poverty. Little houses, shanties, one on top of the other, one up against the other, all built into the hillsides. Here live the poor, people with so little. I wondered, how is it possible for people to live this way, and yet, for a large percentage of the world, this is the normal way of life.
...Today, the Jewish community is a target of a vicious campaign instigated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who compared Israel’s entry into Gaza to Nazi aggression. In fact, on the cover of the most recent edition of PDVSA, the monthly magazine of the Venezuelan state oil company, there is a picture of a concentration camp with a watchtower and barbed wire. Flying over the camp is an Israeli flag. And the caption blazoned across the picture reads, “NUEVA ADMINISTRACION” (under new management).
Our first stop was the home of Rabbi Brener. Rabbi Brener is the Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi community, where he has served for the past forty years. He studied at Yeshiva University where he was ordained, and his first pulpit was in the US for twelve years, so his English is fluent. A man of great stature, Rabbi Brener has been deeply influenced by the culture of America, and the spirit of Israel. It is a culture and spirit of hadar Yisrael, Jewish pride. He, amongst all the rabbis in Venezuela, as wonderful as they are, knows how to stand tall and strong in the face of adversity. Having spent a Shabbat in Riverdale and spoken at our synagogue just recently, I’ve developed a special kinship and respect and love for the man.
Rabbi Brener lives in a comfortable area not far from his synagogue, Union Israelita de Caracas. Living on an upper floor, one can look out from his terrace and see that even Caracas has Godly beauty. Waiting for us as we entered his home was, Rabbi Brener’s wife, Henny whom I also knew from her visit with her husband to Riverdale.
Not only were the Breners there, but the penei, the leaders of the community as well. The Breners had arranged that we meet some of the leadership. Henny had prepared an elegant lunch. I thought of the many trips I had taken around the world speaking out for Jewry. On most of these trips, we ate salami and canned beans. This trip would be different. For the first time, an establishment figure (Rabbi Brener), and an activist to boot, had arranged every detail.
...In the lobby of the synagogue were large, blown up pictures of the desecration. Silver from the Torah on the floor; Jewish books ripped apart. I have little doubt that the Torah scrolls themselves were thrown to the ground, but that may have been too painful to display in pictures. On the walls were scrawled anti-Semitic slogans – “fuera, muerte a todos” and “Israel malditos, muerte” – “get out, death to you all” and “damned Jews, death to you.”
...That evening we were joined for dinner in Rabbi Brener’s synagogue by other community rabbis. Here I saw what I have believed for years – rabbis have the unique opportunity and honor to lead and shepherd their communities not only in good times, but through the bad times too.
After dinner we met with the Venezuelan equivalent of the Presidents Conference, CAIV, the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela. I have never been invited to speak at the Presidents Conference here in America, but in Venezuela, I and the other rabbis were their treasured guests. Clearly, we met them because Rabbi Brener had carefully prepared and facilitated the gathering.
...The long day was finally over. I was overwhelmed by two feelings. This is a community under siege, living in deep fear, but in the same breath, it is also a community exhibiting great courage.
Fear is everywhere. I saw it in the eyes of young people, yeshiva students and leadership. All they want is a fundamental freedom. The freedom from fear.
And yet, there was courage too, starting from the top, from Rabbi Brener himself. Here was a community that told President Chavez, we will not be bullied into casting Israel off. Israel is part of our destiny, and being Jewish is part of our very essence.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
We davened this morning at the Ma’or Hatorah School...As the trip unfolded, I slowly began to realize that Venezuelan Jewry was not some kind of “hole in the wall” community to be pitied. The synagogues we visited yesterday are large, reaching thousands of people, and the Me’or Hatorah school we visited this morning reaches about one hundred charedi families. Its annual budget is two million dollars. That’s not simple to raise year after year, and yet, its leadership has succeeded in raising these monies.
Rabbi Brener arranged for us to see Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino at his home in Alta Florida. The Cardinal is also the Archbishop of Caracas. A man who appeared to be in his fifties, he greeted us warmly.
But as soon as we sat down, the Cardinal excused himself, explaining that he was carrying his cell phone and fearful that our conversation would be overheard through it, he excused himself to place the cellphone in another room.
Rabbi Herzfeld told the cardinal that in his meeting with the Charge d’Affairs of Venezuela in Washington, he was told that the Venezuelan government believed that the church was behind the attacks against the Jewish community. The cardinal was incredulous. He told us that a year ago, a grenade was thrown at the residence of the Papal Nuncio. He also told us that Chavez had personally attacked him in the most vile way in the media. And he told us that immediately after the synagogue attacks, he had reached out to Rabbi Brener and the Jewish community to express his solidarity.
...God has a peculiar sense of humor. For years I had been a great critic of the church, ranging from Pope John Paul’s embrace of Waldheim to the presence of a convent at Auschwitz. But here I sat with my colleagues, opposite Cardinal Urosa, in the spirit of brotherhood...
The best was left for last, acharon acharon chaviv. Our last stop was the magnificent Hebraica / Community School. The entire complex is once again surrounded by high walls.
Hebraica is the equivalent of an American JCC or Y. Only Jews can be members. 75% of the community is affiliated with Hebraica. Across the road within the same complex is the Community School. The school attracts students of all backgrounds, making a conscious effort to embrace young men and women on all levels of observance and background. Many of the boys do not wear kippot. Still, the food is kosher and the general religious tone is orthodox, but an orthodoxy that is uncompromising in its openness and non-judgementalism. I felt right at home.
...In my talk to the older students, I shared with them the emotions of rallies held on their behalf in New York. With Rabbi Brener as translator, I shared three terms – ahavat Yisrael, gvurat yisrael, and hadar yisrael.
Ahavat yisrael or achdut yisrael is the unity of Israel, the solidarity and oneness we feel for each other. In the midst of these challenging times, we were here to lovingly declare, “you’re not alone.”
Gvurat Yisrael is the strength of Israel, the ability to overcome.
And then, there is hadar yisrael. Precisely when Chavez and others in the world would have Jews walk around bent over, weak, embarrassed to be Jewish, is the time to walk tall and strong with hadar, with Jewish pride.
...The time had come to leave. I turned to Rabbi Brener, who reminds me in certain ways of my father (I can offer no greater compliment) and asked him for a blessing. He placed his hands on my head, offered a blessing. We embraced and parted.
...My mind wandered as the faces of Venezuelan Jews, my brothers and sisters, leaders and students, older and younger flashed before me. Each was no longer a number, but a person we had come to know.
I thought of the fear they live with; of students who must be chaperoned everywhere, of a lay-leader who couldn’t carry his card identifying him as the leader of Hebraica.
And I thought of their courage. Of the Beit Shmuel students dancing in the open courtyard, of a lay leadership that said no to Chavez when he demanded they disassociate with Israel.
And I thought of our responsibility. The thirty hours we spent in Venezuela gave me a glimpse of what it is to live in a dictatorship led by a bully. Our imperative is to speak out for our brethren.
Not only is Chavez a threat to Jews, but with Hezbollah and Hamas pouring into Venezuela to help secure the country, Venezuela could become – as one Venezuela Jewish leader told me, a springboard for the next 9/11 attack against the United States (God forbid).
Yes, we have a responsibility to speak out loudly and clearly in front of Venezuelan embassies and consulates throughout the world, and in the halls of Congress. To send the simple message to Chavez – we hold you accountable; and the voice of moral conscience will follow you everywhere.
As our plane took off and I looked over the Venezuelan terrain, I thought of what was for me the most powerful moment of our trip. It took place as we were looking out at the large athletic fields of the Hebraica JCC. There in the distance flew the Venezuelan flag, and aside it, the Israeli flag.
“They’ve tried to split us from Israel,” the head of Hebraica told us, “but never, never will we give in to that demand. That flag will remain flying there forever.”
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