Metro

De Blasio ignored Nicaragua anti-Semitism

Bill de Blasio’s workers’ paradise in Sandinista-controlled Nicaragua was an anti-Semitic hotbed that persecuted Jews, forced them out of the country and stole their hard-earned property, Jewish leaders say.

News and personal accounts of the era paint a harsh, hateful picture of the repressive party.

The nearly 30-year-old allegations about the Sandinistas include their making threats against Nicaragua’s small Jewish community — a mere 250 in number — confiscating private property and support of Yasser Arafat’s PLO.

In 1979, many of the country’s Jews fled in the face of persecution and threatened imprisonment.

Dan Levitan, a de Blasio campaign spokesman, said there was no connection between the candidate’s activities and the hatred spewed by the Sandinistas at Jews.

The Democratic mayoral front-runner went to Nicaragua in 1988 — when he was 26 — to help distribute food and medicine.

“They had a youthful energy and idealism mixed with a human ability and practicality that was really inspirational,” he said recently.

In addition to Nicaragua, other leftist countries that have drawn de Blasio’s interest rank high for repression on the annual list compiled by Freedom House, a human-rights watchdog group.

Cuba — where he honeymooned — gets the group’s worst rating on repression, while Zimbabwe and Nicaragua also received damning grades.