Venezuela Jews Certify 200-Year-Old Mikveh
RIO DE JANEIRO — Venezuela’s Jewish community has certified the authenticity of a 200-year-old mikvah, or ritual bath, found in 2013 during restoration work on a museum.
The president of the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Venezuela, Omar Vielma, said the finding in Coro near the Alberto Henriquez Museum marks a precedent to preserve the site as the first Jewish settlement in the country. Vielma said he expects to find more artifacts.
“The certification is essential for this finding to gain legal support aiming at, in the near future, being named part of Venezuela’s official cultural heritage,” said Vielma, who was present for the certification on Monday.
Archaeologists and anthropologists have noted the unique design of the mikvah and said it was used by the Jewish inhabitants of the area, the Correo del Orinoco newspaper reported.
The finding in Coro, the capital of the Falcon state in western Venezuela about 200 miles from Caracas, has been catalogued by the Institute of Cultural Heritage as an example of diversity of the archaeological heritage of the site, which was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.
The Jewish community was given the land where the mikvah was discovered. The site had been damaged by torrential rain and flooding in 2010.
The mikvah will become a study object in the curriculum of the school of anthropology at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and will be added to the country’s national registry for cultural heritage.
Venezuela is home to some 9,000 Jews, down from some 25,000 in 1999. Many Jews left, mainly for Florida and Israel, due to a deteriorating financial and social climate, along with a growing anti-Semitic environment established under the Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro regimes.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Culture Cardinals are Catholic not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Campus encampments return one year later, and pro-Palestinian protests spark 15 arrests
-
Fast Forward Israeli left-wing group suspended at University of Haifa after protesting the war in Gaza
-
Fast Forward Jordanian national in Florida sentenced to 6 years for targeting businesses he believed supported Israel
-
Fast Forward A ‘Golden Dome for America,’ inspired by Israel, is part of Trump’s 2026 budget request
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.