Venezuelan Jewish groups have partnered with a leading developer to restore the oldest existing Jewish cemetery in South America.

The Venezuelan Israelite Association and the Center for Sephardic Studies are working with Constructora Sambil, a commercial developer owned by Salomon Cohen and known for building some of the largest malls in Latin America, to repair the 177-year-old Jewish cemetery in Coro, located about six hours west of the nation’s capital, Caracas.

The cemetery had been mostly neglected for nearly 40 years. The site consists of 165 tombs dating back to 1832. Sephardim first arrived in Venezuela from the nearby Caribbean island of Curacao, establishing a permanent presence in 1830.

Over the past century, the Coro cemetery steadily deteriorated as the Jewish community there, which never numbered more than 200, assimilated and largely lost its religious identity. — jta