Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has publicly claimed Sephardic Jewish ancestry, but he has not identified as Jewish in religion or practice, and his own account described grandparents who converted to Catholicism, leaving his Jewish status unconfirmed and, by traditional definitions, unlikely.
The question has circulated for years because Maduro himself raised it in a 2013 interview while pushing back against accusations that his government tolerated or encouraged antisemitism. In that interview, he said his grandparents were Jews from a Sephardic background who later became Catholic in Venezuela.
What Maduro has actually said about his claimed Jewish heritage
Maduro’s best-known on-the-record claim dates to May 2013, when multiple Jewish and Israeli outlets reported his remarks about Jewish grandparents and conversion to Catholicism.
No independent public documentation was presented alongside those claims in the reporting, and Maduro did not announce any personal religious change or conversion to Judaism.
In everyday conversation, “Jewish” can refer to ancestry, identity, or religious status. In traditional Jewish law, Orthodox and Conservative authorities generally recognize someone as Jewish by birth if their mother is Jewish, or if the person converts according to Jewish law.
Because Maduro’s public remarks focused on grandparents and on conversion away from Judaism, they do not, on their own, establish that he is Jewish under those standards.
The surname 'Maduro' and the Curaçao connection
The surname itself adds another reason the rumor persists. A Jewish Telegraphic Agency travel feature on Curaçao’s Jewish heritage noted that “Maduro” is a common surname on the island and described it as a classic Sephardic name, while also noting that Maduro has claimed Jewish ancestry.
Historians and genealogists, however, generally caution that a surname alone is not proof of personal Jewish identity, especially across regions shaped by centuries of migration, intermarriage, and forced or voluntary conversion.
Maduro has, at times, highlighted outreach to Jewish figures. In 2017, JTA reported that he met with Venezuelan Jewish leaders in Caracas, including Rabbi Isaac Cohen of the Asociación Israelita de Venezuela, framing the meeting as a dialogue on coexistence.
In 2018, JTA reported that Maduro met Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar, Jerusalem’s Sephardic chief rabbi, and that Maduro awarded a medal to Rabbi Isaac Cohen during the visit.
Based on the public record, the most accurate description is that Maduro has claimed Jewish ancestry, specifically Sephardic roots through grandparents, while also saying that those relatives converted to Catholicism.
That claim does not establish that Maduro is Jewish by religion, and it does not provide enough information to confirm Jewish status under traditional Jewish law. That said, if one of his grandparents were Jewish, Maduro would theoretically be entitled to immigrate to Israel, according to the Grandparents Clause in the Law of Return.