Antisemitism in Chile

Antisemitism in Chile started in early Chilean history during Spanish colonization and settlement. Now on the decline, antisemitism has resurfaced throughout the country's history to include the 20th-century Nazism of some Chileans with German heritage. Chileans today have a positive view of the country's estimated 32,000 Jews or less than 1% of the population. ^{[citation needed]}

Jewish presence in Chile is as old as the history of that country. Over time, Chile has received several contingents of Jewish immigrants. Currently, the Jewish community in Chile comes mainly from the migrations occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries, mostly of Ashkenazi background. Chile is home to the third-largest Jewish community in South America.

The first Jews arrived in Chile with the Spanish conquistadors. These were Jewish converts to Catholicism because, at the time of the Inquisition, had to hide their Jewish origin living. Most of this immigration occurred in the early years of the conquest, fleeing religious persecution in Spain, since in the Americas is not yet the court of the Inquisition installed. Diego García de Cáceres, faithful friend and executor of the founder of Santiago, Pedro de Valdivia, was one of them.

In colonial times, the most prominent Jewish character in Chile was the surgeon Francisco Maldonado da Silva, one of the first directors of the San Juan de Dios Hospital. Maldonado da Silva was an Argentine Jew born in San Miguel de Tucumán into a Sephardic family from Portugal. He was accused to the Tribunal of the Inquisition by his sisters, devout Christians, from attempting to convert them to Judaism. Maldonado declared openly Jew, causing him the conviction to be burned alive in 1639. According to a 2010 book, he was imprisoned because he tried to convert his two sisters, who had converted to Catholicism, and they denounced him.

From 1840, decades after the abolition of the Inquisition in Chile, began the Jewish immigration to the country. The first Jews who arrived in Valparaíso were from Europe, especially from Germany and France. One of them, Manuel de Lima y Sola, was a man who became one of the founding members of the Fire Department of Valparaíso in 1851 and one of the founders of the Chilean freemasonry to create the first Masonic lodge, the "Unión Fraternal" two years later.

Between the Spanish people which arrived to Chile during the Inquisition were Jews which had been sent away from their home land. The inquisition has been active in Chile until 1813. In that period, many Jews were executed. One of them was Francisco Maldonado De-Silva, a doctor who declared in public about his Jewish religion, and was executed only because of that. De-Silva's life story was published in the book “la gesta marrano”. With Chile's independence, Jewish prayers were allowed in public only in 1856. The first official Jewish organization was established in 1909.

In 2006, footballer Rodrigo Goldberg faced antisemitic abuse from Palestino fans during a match, due to his Jewish heritage. In 2024, he was once again targeted with antisemitic slurs, this time on social media, which led him to leave his X account inactive.

On 23 August 2025, Santiago's oldest synagogue, Bicur Joilim, was vandalized while people were praying inside, the fourth such attack in two years. The incident follows similar events at Jewish places of worship in Viña del Mar, Temuco, and Concepción. The Chilean Jewish community accused authorities of downplaying and denying the antisemitic reality in Chile, which has led to inaction. Organizations such as the UN and the United States Department of State have warned of rising antisemitism in the country, reflected in profanities, hate speech, and harassment.