Brazilian Jews

Judeus brasileiros יְהוּדִים ברזילאים‎
The Location ofBrazil inSouth America
Total population
107,329[1]–120,000[2] Jewish Brazilians
Regions with significant populations
Brazil:Mainly in the cities ofSão Paulo,Rio de Janeiro andPorto Alegre.
Languages
Brazilian Portuguese  · Hebrew  · Yiddish · Ladino
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Brazilian people,Sephardi Jews,Mizrahi Jews andAshkenazi Jews

Thehistory of theJews inBrazil begins during the settlement of Europeans in the new world. Although only baptizedChristians were subject to theInquisition, Jews started settling in Brazil when theInquisition reached Portugal, in the 16th century. They arrived in Brazil during the period ofDutch rule, setting up inRecife the firstsynagogue in theAmericas, theKahal Zur Israel Synagogue, as early as 1636. Most of those Jews wereSephardic Jews who had fled the Inquisition inSpain andPortugal to the religious freedom ofthe Netherlands.

ThePortuguese Inquisition expanded its scope of operations from Portugal to Portugal'scolonial possessions, includingBrazil,Cape Verde, andGoa, where it continued investigating and trying cases based on supposed breaches of orthodoxRoman Catholicism until 1821. As a colony of Portugal, Brazil was affected by the nearly 300 years of repression of the Portuguese Inquisition, which began in 1536.^[3]

InThe Wealth of NationsAdam Smith attributed much of the development of Brazil's sugar industry and cultivation to the arrival of Portuguese Jews who were forced out of Portugal during the Inquisition.^[4]

After the firstBrazilian Constitution in 1824 that granted freedom of religion, Jews began to arrive gradually in Brazil. ManyMoroccan Jews arrived in the 19th century, principally because of therubber boom, settling in theAmazon basin, where many oftheir descendants continue to live. Waves of Jewish immigration occurred first byRussian andPolish Jews escapingpogroms and theRussian Revolution, and then German Jews in the 1930s during the rise of theNazis in Europe. In the late 1950s, another wave of immigration brought thousands of NorthAfrican Jews. By the 21st Century the Jewish communities were thriving in Brazil. Someanti-Semitic events and acts have occurred, mainly during the2006 Lebanon War such as vandalism of Jewish cemeteries. But in the main, Brazil's Jewish population is highly educated, with 68% of the community holding university degrees, employed mainly in business, law, medicine, engineering, and the arts. Most own businesses or are self-employed. TheIBGE Census shows that 70% of Brazil's Jews belong to the middle and upper classes. As a group, Jews in Brazil see themselves as a successful segment of society, and face relatively little antisemitism at the onset of the 21st century.^[5]

Brazil has the tenth largestJewish community in the world, about 107,329 by 2010, according to theBrazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) Census,^[1] and has the second largest Jewish population in Latin America, afterArgentina.^[6] TheJewish Confederation of Brazil (CONIB) estimates that there are more than 120,000 Jews in Brazil.^[2]

There have been Jews in what is now Brazil since the first Portuguese arrived in the country in 1500, notably Mestre João and Gaspar da Gama who arrived in the first ships. A number of Sephardic Jews immigrated to Brazil during its early settlements. They were known as "New Christians" -Conversos (pt.) orMarranos (sp.) — Jews obliged to convert toRoman Catholicism by thePortuguese crown.

The Jews from Portugal avoided immigrating to Brazil, because they would also be persecuted by the Inquisition. Most of the Portuguese Conversos took refuge in Mediterranean countries such as in North Africa,Italy,Greece and theMiddle East, and others emigrated to countries that tolerated Judaism, such as the Netherlands,England andGermany. Many Sephardic Jews from Holland and England worked with the maritime trade of theDutch West India Company, especially with the sugar production in the northeast of Brazil.^[7]

The first Jews who arrived in South America were Sephardic Jews who, after being expelled from Brazil by the Portuguese, settled in the northeastDutch colony.Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue was the first synagogue in the Americas, established inRecife in 1636 and a community of about 1450 Sephardic Jews lived there. When the Portuguese retook Recife in 1654, 23 Jews from the community escaped to the DutchNorth American colony ofNew Amsterdam, that in 1664 would become New York City.

In the final decades of the 18th century, someConversos came to southeastern Brazil to work in thegold mines. Many were arrested, accused of Judaism. Brazilian families that descend from theConversos are mainly concentrated in the states ofMinas Gerais,Rio de Janeiro,Pará andBahia.^{[citation needed]}

Most sources state that the first synagogue of Belém,Sha'ar haShamaim ("Gate of Heaven"), was founded in 1824. There are, however, controversies;Samuel Benchimol, author ofEretz Amazônia: Os Judeus na Amazônia, affirms that the first synagogue in Belém wasEshel Avraham ("Abraham'sTamarisk") and that it was established in 1823 or 1824, whileSha'ar haShamaim was founded in 1826 or 1828.

The Jewish population in the capital of Grão-Pará had by 1842 an establishednecropolis.^[8]

Because of unfavorable conditions inEurope,European Jews began debating in the 1890s about establishingagricultural settlements in Brazil. At first, the plan did not work because of Brazilian political quarrels.^{[citation needed]}

In 1904, the Jewish agricultural colonization, supported by theJewish Colonization Association, began in the state ofRio Grande do Sul, thesouthernmoststate in Brazil. The main intention of the JCA in creating those colonies was to resettleRussian Jews during the mass immigration from the hostileRussian Empire. The first colonies were Philippson (1904) and Quatro Irmãos (1912).^[9] However, these colonization attempts all failed because of "inexperience, insufficient funds and poor planning" and also because of "administrative problems, lack of agricultural facilities and the lure of city jobs."

In 1920, the JCA began selling some of the land to non-Jewish settlers. Despite the failure, "The colonies aided Brazil and helped change thestereotypical image of the non-productive Jew, capable of working only incommerce andfinance. The main benefit from these agricultural experiments was the removal of restrictions in Brazil on Jewish immigration from Europe during the 20th century."^[9]

By theFirst World War, about 7,000 Jews were inhabiting Brazil. In 1910 inPorto Alegre, capital ofRio Grande do Sul, a Jewish school was opened and aYiddish newspaper,Di Menshhayt ("Humanity") was established in 1915. One year later, the Jewish community ofRio de Janeiro formed an aid committee forWorld War I victims.^{[citation needed]}

Congregação Israelita Paulista ("CIP," or "Israeli Congregation of São Paulo), the largest synagogue in Brazil, was founded in by Dr. Fritz Pinkus, who was born inEgeln, Germany.^[10]

Associação Religiosa Israelita (the "Israeli Religious Association"), now a member of theWorld Union for Progressive Judaism, was founded by Dr.Heinrich Lemle, who emigrated fromFrankfurt to Rio de Janeiro in 1941.^[10]

TheAlbert Einstein Israelite Hospital in São Paulo was founded in 1955 and inaugurated in 1971. It has a medical and nursing school. It is considered one of the best medical centers in Latin America.^[11]

The first recorded auto-da-fé was held inParis in 1242.Auto-da-fés took place inFrance,Spain,Portugal, Brazil,Peru,Ukraine, in the Portuguese colony ofGoa,India and inMexico where the last in the world was held in 1850. Nearly five hundred auto-da-fés were "celebrated" by theRoman Catholic Church over the course of three centuries, and thousands ofJews met their deaths this way usually after months of suffering in the Inquisition's prisons and torture chambers. This brutal and public ritual consisted of aCatholic Mass, a procession ofheretics andapostates, many of themMarranos, or "secretJews", and their torture and execution byburning at the stake. Last-minute penitents weregarroted to spare the pain ofdeath by burning.^[12] Auto-da-fé victims were most frequently apostate former Jews and formerMuslims, thenAlumbrados (followers of a condemned mystical movement) andProtestants, and occasionally those who had been accused of such crimes against the Roman Catholic Church asbigamy andsorcery.^[13]

Historians note that the best-known action of the Inquisition againstCrypto-Jews in Brazil were the Visitations of 1591–93 inBahia; 1593–95 inPernambuco; 1618 in Bahia; around 1627 in the Southeast; and in 1763 and 1769 inGrão-Pará, in the north of the country. In the 18th century, the Inquisition was also active inParaíba,Rio de Janeiro, andMinas Gerais. Approximately 400 "judaizers" were prosecuted, most of them being condemned to imprisonment, and 18New Christians were condemned to death inLisbon.

One of the best-known Portuguese playwrights,António José da Silva (1705-1739), "the Jew," who lived part of his life in Portugal and part in Brazil was condemned to death by the Inquisition in 1739.^{[citation needed]} His parents, João Mendes da Silva and Lourença Coutinho, were descended fromJews who had emigrated to thecolony of Brazil to escape theInquisition, but in 1702 that tribunal began to persecute theMarranos or anyone of Jewish descent in Rio, and in October 1712 Lourença Coutinho became a victim. Her husband and children accompanied her to Portugal when António was 7 years old,^[14] where she figured among the "reconciled" in theauto-da-fé of July 9, 1713, after undergoing the torment only.^[15] António produced his first play or opera in 1733, and the next year he married his cousin, D. Leonor Maria de Carvalho, whose parents had been burnt by the Inquisition, while she herself had gone through anauto-da-fé in Spain and been exiled on account of her religion. They had their first daughter in 1734, but the years of their marriage, and of Silva's dramatic career, were few, for on October 5, 1737 husband and wife were both imprisoned on the charge of "judaizing." A slave of theirs had denounced them to the Holy Office. Though the details of the accusation against them seemed trivial and contradictory, and some of his friends testified about his Catholic piety and observation, António was condemned to death. On October 18, like those who wanted to die in the Catholic faith, he was first strangled and after had his body burnt in anauto-da-fé.^[15] His wife, who witnessed his death, did not long survive him.^{[citation needed]}

Another notable person isIsaac de Castro Tartas (1623-1647) who emigrated to Brazil from France and Holland. In 1641 he arrived inParaíba,Brazil, where he lived for several years. Against the wishes of his relatives there, he went later toBahia de Todos os Santos (present day, Salvador), the colony's capital, where he was recognized as aJew, arrested by thePortuguese Inquisition, and sent to Lisbon^[16] where he died as aJewish martyr.

Heightened antisemitism in Brazil in the 1900s reached its peak during 1933–1945 with the ascent of Nazism in Germany. Brazil blocked its doors to an influx of Jewish refugees from Europe duringthe Holocaust.^[17] Research by Brazil's Virtual Archives on Holocaust and Antisemitism Institute (Arqshoah) has uncovered that between 1937 and 1950 more than 16,000 visas were issued to European Jews attempting to escape the Nazis were denied by the governments of presidentsGetúlio Vargas andEurico Gaspar Dutra.^[18]

Brazil strictly condemns antisemitism, and such an act is an explicit violation of the law. According to the Brazilian penal code, it is illegal to write, edit, publish, or sell literature that promotes anti-Semitism or racism.^[19] The law provides penalties of up to five years in prison for crimes of racism or religious intolerance and enables courts to fine or imprison for two to five years anyone who displays, distributes, or broadcasts antisemitic or racist material.^[20]

In 1989, the Brazilian Congress passed a law prohibiting the manufacture, trade and distribution ofswastikas for the purpose of disseminatingNazism. Anyone who violates this law is liable to serve a prison term from between two and five years.^[21] (Law no. 7716 of 5 January 1989)

In 2022, a Pentecostal pastor who prayed in front of his congregation for a secondHolocaust was sentenced to 18 years and 6 months in prison, the longest sentence for antisemitism to date.^[22]

According to a U.S.Department of State report, antisemitism in Brazil remains rare.^[20] The results of a global survey on anti-Semitic sentiments, released by theAnti-Defamation League, ranked Brazil among the least anti-Semitic countries in the world. According to this global survey conducted between July 2013 and February 2014, Brazil has the lowest "Anti-Semitic Index" (16%) inLatin America and the third lowest in allAmericas, only behind Canada (14%) and the United States (9%).^[23][24]

Brazil has the 10th largestJewish community in the world, about 107,329 according to the2010 Brazilian Census.^[1] TheJewish Confederation of Brazil (CONIB) estimates that there are more than 120,000 Jews in Brazil,^[2] with the lower figure representing active practitioners. About half of Brazilian Jews live in the state ofSão Paulo, about a quarter in the state ofRio de Janeiro, and there are also sizeable communities in the states ofRio Grande do Sul,Paraná,Minas Gerais,Pernambuco,Bahia,Pará andAmazonas.^[25]

The Brazilian Jewish community is composed ofAshkenazi Jews ofCentral andEastern European origin andSephardic Jews ofIberian,North African andMiddle Eastern origin. It is unclear which group is more numerous. Both groups exist in the largest cities ofSão Paulo andRio de Janeiro, where they have mixed to some extent. In theNorth Region most Jews are Sephardic, and in theSouth Region most Jews are Ashkenazi.^[26]

Brazilian Jews play an active role in politics, sports, academia, trade and industry, and are overall well integrated in all spheres of Brazilian life. Jews lead an open religious life in Brazil and there are rarely any reported cases ofantisemitism in the country. In the main urban centers there are schools, associations andsynagogues where Brazilian Jews can practice and pass onJewish culture and traditions. Some Jewish scholars say that the only threat facing Judaism in Brazil is the relatively high frequency ofintermarriage, which in 2002 was estimated at 60%. Intermarriage is especially high among the country's Jews andArabs.^[27][28] As of 2006, no more than 20% of Brazilian Jews keptkosher.^[29] Brazilian Jews exist across a wide religious spectrum, includingOrthodox,Conservative,Reform, andsecular Jews. Most Brazilian Jews are non-Orthodox and the majority of Brazilian synagogues are affiliated with the Conservative and Reform movements. Historically, until the 1930s, Orthodox Judaism was the main form of Judaism due to immigration of Eastern European Jews, but Central European Jewish immigrants later introduced Reform Judaism. The majority of the Brazilian Jewish community identifies as secular andZionist.Chabad has a growing influence in Brazil. The majority of Brazilian Jews areAshkenazi, often of Polish or German descent, while there is a significantSephardic andMizrahi minority of mostly Lebanese, Syrian, Moroccan, and Egyptian descent.^[30][31]

There has been a steady stream ofaliyah (immigration toIsrael) since the nation's foundation in 1948. Between 1948 and 2021, more than 16,000 Brazilians immigrated to Israel.^[32]

All states, the Federal District, and municipalities with more than 100 Jews are listed below. The numbers are from the 2010 census.^[25]

• Amazonian Jews
• Dutch Empire
• Dutch Brazil
• Jewish Agency for Israel
• Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue
• List of Brazilian Jews
• List of Latin American Jews
• Morashá
• Oldest synagogues in the world#Recife, Brazil
• History of the Jews in Latin America
• Brazil–Israel relations
• History of Pernambuco#Jews in Pernambuco

• Lesser, Jeffrey (1995).Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question. Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN 0-520-08413-6.
• Pieroni, Geraldo. "Outcasts from the Kingdom: The Inquisition and the Banishment of New Christians to Brazil," in Paolo Bernardini and Norman Fiering, eds.The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450-1800. New York: Berghahn Books 2001, 242–54.

• Brazil: The Oldest Jewish Community in the Americas by Rabbi Menachem Levine, Aish.com

• Jewish Brazilian history
• Religion in the Dutch Empire

• CS1 Portuguese-language sources (pt)
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