The Jewish community in Colombia is up in arms after the government appointed an anti-Zionist rabbi with questionable credentials as the Interior Ministry’s new director for religious affairs. 

Dr. Richard Gamboa Ben-Eleazar’s new role was publicized last week after he took to X to thank Colombian President Gustavo Petro for “the opportunity to serve excluded and marginalized religious minorities from the Directorate of Religious Affairs, in the construction of a just and peaceful Colombia for all.”

Hardly a week had passed, however, before Jewish leaders and organizations aired their grievances with the appointment and cast doubt on the religious figurehead’s rabbinic standing.

“Gamboa is a fraud,” said the Simon Weisenthal Center, which accused him of buying his rabbinical ordination for $150 dollars from an online site. “He lacks rabbinical training, congregation, and scruples,” the Jewish advocacy group wrote. 

According to Mr. Gamboa’s LinkedIn page, he received his ordination certificate from the Esoteric Theological Seminary, an online institution that offers ordination licenses to those who complete “3 easy steps.” The website gives users the opportunity to become an ordained minister, rabbi, pastor, reverend or priest — all for the bargain price of $150. The site also provides online PhD programs in religion, metaphysics, religious studies, and more. 

In addition to his dubious rabbinical standing, the center also pointed to Mr. Gamboa friendship with the Iranian ambassador in Colombia and his anti-Israel activism. The group cited social media posts in which he labels Israel “neo-Nazi state” and states that Zionism is “an anti-Jewish, idolatrous, and apostate heresy.”  Mr. Gamboa flaunts his anti-Zionist stance in his bio on X in which he labels himself a “human rights defender” and an “anti-Zionist.” 

As director of religious affairs, Mr. Gamboa has expressed his intentions to repeal the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Definition of Antisemitism, which is widely accepted by the international Jewish community, and has vowed to “hunt down zionist propagandists,” the center alleges. 

“He uses this fake investiture to, from a supposedly Jewish position, establish a narrative against Israel and condemn it for genocide against the Palestinian people, justifying Petro’s official antisemitism,” the center laments. 

Colombia’s local Jewish leaders voiced similar outrage over Mr. Gamboa’s new role. The executive director of the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia, Marcos Pecke, accused Mr. Gamboa of referring to Zionist Jews as “heretics, apostates, and Nazis” and avowed that such a person “cannot be entrusted with the religious freedoms of Jewish citizens,” he told Media Line. 

Colombia’s Chief Rabbi, Alfredo Goldschmidt, also rejected Mr. Gamboa’s appointment, divulging that Mr. Gamboa has received virtually no support from the religious community — “not from Jews, evangelicals, nor Catholics. He’s had clashes with all,” Rabbi Goldschmidt told Media Line. 

The latest controversy comes as Colombia’s president has taken on an increasingly hostile approach to Israel, choosing to sever diplomatic ties with the state back in May and also accusing the country of committing genocide in Gaza. 

The center’s assistant director for Latin America, Dr. Dario Pendzik, reckoned that the president’s decision to appoint Mr. Gamboa was a deliberate jab at the Jewish community. 

“There is a clear strategy to show that the good Jew is the one who attacks and denies Israel,” Mr. Pendzik stated. “This very week, along with his Minister of Culture, he received anti-Zionist Jewish groups and alleged representatives of the Palestinian Diaspora.”

The embattled religious affairs director appeared to respond to the controversy by declaring on X: “In the last 48 hours, my human rights have been violated in Colombia: religious freedom, right to honor and a good name, freedom of conscience… they have done so publicly and in my capacity as a HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER!” 

Mr. Gamboa did not respond to a request for comment from the Sun.