By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
The number of Jews expected to immigrate to
Israel from Turkey this year is likely to double compared to last year,
but the level remains extremely low despite surging anti-Israel and
anti-Semitic incidents in the predominantly Muslim country, a Jewish
Agency for Israel official said Sunday.

Separately,
the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Venezuela said Sunday that he doubted
whether the South American country held any future for the Jewish
community, following the Friday night vandalism of the oldest synagogue
in the country.

About 250 Turkish Jews are expected to immigrate to Israel this
year, more than double the 112 who did so last year, said Eli Cohen,
director-general of the Jewish Agency’s Immigration and Absorption
Department in Jerusalem.

The number of expected immigrants from Turkey this year makes
up only 1 percent of the 25,000-strong Jewish community that traces its
roots in the nation back more than five centuries, dating to the
Spanish Inquisition.

“We
would prefer that the main reason for aliya today [be] the ideology of
those immigrants who come from Western countries, but we see that the
anti-Semitic incidents, as well as the global economic crisis, are what
is furthering aliya today,” Cohen said.

He noted that many of the Turkish Jews seeking to make aliya
were students or young couples wanting to study at Israeli universities
or to live in Israel.

Relations
between Israel and Turkey hit a nadir last week after Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been a leading and vitriolic
critic of Israel’s recent military operation against Hamas in Gaza,
stormed out of a panel discussion with President Shimon Peres at the
World Economic Forum in Davos.

At the same time, the Jewish Agency official said Sunday that
there was “a large interest” in immigration to Israel among Jews living
in Venezuela. About 14,500 Jews live there, and only 60 immigrated to
Israel last year.

All Israeli representatives were kicked out of the country last
month during Operation Cast Lead, but the agency is in daily contact
with Jewish groups there, Cohen said.

Meanwhile, Rabbi Pynchas Brener of Venezuela said Sunday that
he was doubtful that there was any future for the Jewish community
there.

“There is a psychological mechanism which makes people within
the country think things are not as bad as they seem,” Brener told The Jerusalem Post
in a telephone interview from Caracas. “For psychological reasons,
people who live in the country tend to justify actions taken against
them.”

His comments came after the main Sephardi synagogue in Caracas was vandalized by a group of attackers.

Two security guards were overpowered by about 15 people who
ransacked the synagogue’s sanctuary and offices late Friday, shattering
religious objects and leaving graffiti such as, “We don’t want
murderers,” and “Jews, get out.”

The incident forced the synagogue to cancel Saturday services.

“Reason makes us believe that this was done with the consent –
if not the instigation – of some central power in Venezuela,” he said.

He noted that Israel and Jews were viewed as synonymous in the
South American country, adding that an upcoming vote on whether the
president could be reelected indefinitely could prove to be a harbinger
of things to come.

“I do not know if in this environment there will be a future for the Jewish community here,” he said.

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League called the synagogue incident “a modern day Kristallnacht.”

“This violent attack, occurring on the Jewish Sabbath, is
reminiscent of the darkest days leading to the Shoah, when Jews were
attacked and synagogues and Torahs vandalized and destroyed under the
guard of the Nazi regime,” said ADL National Director Abraham H.
Foxman.

Foxman said the heinous anti-Jewish hate crime was not random,
but was “directly related to the atmosphere of anti-Jewish intimidation
promoted by President Hugo Chavez and his government apparatus.”

The organization called for Chavez to “abandon the official
government rhetoric of demonization of Israel and the Jews and to
publicly denounce this wanton act of anti-Semitic violence.”

Separately, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said
Sunday that Chavez’s attacks on Israel and the Jewish community had
“set the stage” for the incident.

“This was no mere hate crime from the margins of society, but a
reflection of President Chavez’s campaign to demonize Israel and her
supporters,” the organization said. “For this dangerous escalation of
hate against a minority to stop, President Chav

From: Haluk Demirbag,

Subject: Official: Aliya from Turkey to double

ez’s hate campaign must be denounced by all leaders in the Americas and beyond.”

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