Seven Jews who fled Nicaragua when the Sandinistas came to power maintained Monday that the Sandinista regime is not only anti-Israel, but anti-Semitic.
But a leading Jewish critic of President Reagan’s policy of opposition to the Sandinista government, Rabbi Balfour Brickner of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, continued to deny both charges.
“Unfortunately, many individuals who oppose the President’s policy in Central America, have repeatedly attempted to distort the fact of Sandinista state-induced anti-Semitism,” Fred Luft, former secretary of the Nicraguan Jewish community, said at a Capitol Hill press conference.
He singled out Brickner as did others at the press conference sponsored by the National Jewish Coalition, which has been gathering Jewish support for Reagan’s proposal to provide $100 million to the anti-Sandinista Contras.
Those who deny Sandinista anti-Semitism “have chosen to take the word of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who understandably denies allegation of anti-Semitism rather than the word of Jews who actually lived in Nicaragua and were forced to flee,” Chris Gersten, the Coalition’s executive director, said.
About the same time as the press conference was being held, Brickner was taking part in a rally at the Capitol by “Quest for Peace,” a coalition of religious groups opposed to aid for the Contras.
The Jews of Nicaragua “didn’t leave because they were persecuted as Jews. They fled Nicaragua because they were supporters of (ousted President Anastasio) Somoza,” Brickner told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency following the rally. He and several Christian leaders had led some 100 people in a symbolic presentation of medical supplies that “New Quest” was preparing to send to Nicaragua in order to match any aid approved by Congress for the Contras.
The Nicaraguan Jews denied that they had been supporters of the Somoza regime. “I have never had anything to do with any government,” Sarita Kellerman, a native-born Nicaraguan, said. “I was dedicated to my business and to my children.”
Luft said only two or three members of the Jewish “congregation” are still in Nicaragua. “The rest of our small community (about 50 families) left the country because of fears for our personal safety,” he said.
“This fear was stimulated by the fire bombing of our synagogue by the Sandinistas while we were worshipping inside, by repeated telephone threats and graffiti on the walls of our businesses, warning us that after their take over we will suffer at their hands the ‘Sandinista Justice’,” Luft said. The graffiti said ‘Zionism, Judaism and Somozism are all the same thing’.”
Asked about the firebombing, Brickner snapped, “I don’t want to argue that. It’s a dumb, stupid argument because nobody really knows what happened. I suggest to you that what happened is different than what they report.” At the same time, however, Brickner stressed that neither Reagan nor any of the supporters of aid for the Contras, have evidence “of any ongoing anti-Semitism expressed by the present government of Nicaragua to Jews or against Jews from 1979 to 1986.”
At the Coalition’s press conference, Oscar Kellerman said he fled after the 1979 Sandinista takeover when he was warned as a U.S. citizen by the U.S. Embassy that it would not be able to protect him. He said he was told he was in especial danger because of his “faith.”
Sarita Kellerman said she returned later but was ostracized and was constantly harassed and threatened. She said there was graffiti on her home, business and the synagogue saying, “what Hitler started we will finish.”
Oscar Kellerman said he was in the synagogue when it was firebombed, setting the door aflame. When he and others tried to get outside they were met by seven or eight masked men who warned them to go back inside or be shot. They eventually were able to get the fire out, Kellerman said. The Jews also stressed the closeness of the Sandinistas with the Palestine Liberation Organization, a theme that has been stressed repeatedly in the Administration’s campaign for Contra aid.
Brickner, however, was insistent that the Sandinistas are neither anti-Semitic nor hostile to Israel, in spite of their ties with the PLO, stressing instead Nicaragua’s “concern” over alleged Israeli aid to the Contras. Israel has denied supplying the Contras with aid. To bolster his argument, Brickner drew out a letter he received this month from Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto.
“We are neither anti-Semitic nor anti-Israel,” the Sandinista leader declared in the letter. “We firmly believe that Israel has a right to exist just as we believe that Palestinians deserve a homeland.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
