Israelite Society of Venezuela in 1919, was created as an organization to bring all the Jews who were scattered through various cities and towns throughout the country together. By 1943, nearly 600 German Jews had entered the country, with several hundred more becoming citizens after World War II. By 1950, the community had grown to around 6,000 people, even in the face of immigration restrictions. During the first decades of the 21st century, many Venezuelan Jews decided to emigrate due to the growth of antisemitism and to the political crisis and instability. Currently, there are around 10,000 Jews living in Venezuela, with more than half living in the capital Caracas. Venezuelan Jewry is split equally between Sephardim and Ashkenazim. All but one of the country's 15 synagogues are Orthodox. The majority of Venezuela's Jews are members of the middle class. The father of the current president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, is of Sephardic Jewish descent. Reported Jewish populations in the Americas and the Caribbean in 2014 1 CIA World Factbook, with most estimates current as of July 2014; Jewish Virtual Library: Vital Statistics: Jewish Population of the World (1882 – Present). See also List of Caribbean Jews Jewish immigration to Puerto Rico B'nai B'rith Latin America Charles Palache Pallache family References Bibliography Mordechai Arbell, Dennis Channing Landis, Ann Phelps Barry Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the Caribbean and the Guianas: A Bibliography, Interamericas, 1999, Mordechai Arbell The Portuguese Jews of Jamaica, Canoe Press, 2000, Marjorie Agosín Memory, Oblivion, and Jewish Culture In Latin America, University of Texas Press, 2005, Alan Fredric Benjamin Jews of the Dutch Caribbean: Exploring Ethnic Identity on Curaçao, Routledge, 2002, Judah M. Cohen Through the Sands of Time: A History of the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, UPNE, 2004, Judith Laikin Elkin. The Jews of Latin America (rev) Holmes & Meier, 1998. Ariel Segal Frielich Jews of the Amazon: Self-Exile in Earthly Paradise, The Jewish Publication Society, 1999, Jeffrey Lesser & Raanan Rein. Rethinking Jewish-Latin Americans. University of New Mexico Press, 2008. Jeffrey Lesser, Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question. University of California Press, 1995 Ruggiero, Kristin The Jewish Diaspora In Latin America and the Caribbean: Fragments of Memory, Sussex Academic Press, 2005, The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450–1800, Berghahn Books, 2001, Leo Spitzer. Hotel Bolivia. Hill and Wang, 1998. External links Jews in Argentina Jews in Bolivia Jews