Les Juifs de Coro (Venezuela)

Coro, a town in northwestern Venezuela, welcomed in the early nineteenth century Sephardic Jews from Curaçao, who formed the first official Jewish community in the country. Active merchants in Caribbean trade, they integrated into the life of the city while periodically enduring the hostility of part of the population, which at times provoked their departure. The community left a lasting heritage, notably the Jewish cemetery of Coro, one of the oldest still preserved in South America. The Jewish presence there subsequently declined, as Caracas became the center of Venezuelan Judaism.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗