History of the Jews in Brazil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Brazilian Jew Judeu Brasileiro |
|---|
    Luciano Huck • Luísa Mell • Silvio Santos • Jaques Wagner |
| Total population |
|
96,000 Brazilian Jews[1] |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Brazil:
Mainly in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. |
| Languages |
| Portuguese |
| Religions |
| Jewish and minority Roman Catholic |
A Brazilian Jew (Portuguese: judeu brasileiro) is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Jew ancestry, or a Jew-born person residing in Brazil.
The history of the Jews in Brazil is a rather long and complex one, as it stretches from the very beginning of the European settlement in the new continent. Professor Anita Novinsky, a specialist on the Jews at the University of São Paulo, said that, "Brazil was made by the Jews."[2]
Jews settled early in Brazil, especially during the period of Dutch rule, setting up the first synagogue in the Americas, in Recife as early as 1636. Most of those Jews had fled Spain and Portugal to the religious freedom of the Netherlands during the re-establishment of the Inquisition in first Portugal and Spain. Amsterdam and a few other Dutch towns soon had small Jewish communities. However, it is said that Jews were frequently barred from guild trades and faced limited opportunities. The community soon had more members than it could support.
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[edit] First Jewish arrivals
Jews first arrived in Brazil during the Portuguese Inquisition that conquered Portugal in 1497. The Jews primarily arrived as New Christians or Conversos, names designated to describe Jews (or Muslims) who converted to Christianity. They began to colonize the land and to secretly practice Judaism. One of the first Jews to set foot on Brazil was Gaspar da Gama, a Jew forced to baptize, who went along with Pedro Alvares Cabral in the trip that led to the discovery of what is now Brazil in 1500.[2]
Despite constant persecution by the Inquistions, the Jews and New Christians successfully established sugar plantations and mills. There were about 50,000 Europeans living in Brazil in 1624 and the New Christians made up a significant percentage of this population. According to Alden Oreck, "They were businessmen, importers, exporters, teachers, writers poets, even priests."[2]
In 1630, the Dutch conquered portions of northeast Brazil. The Dutch permitted the open practice of any religion. In 1636, the Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue was built by Jews in Recife, the capital of the Dutch Brazil.[2] It remains to this day and is considered to be the oldest synagogue in the Americas.[3]
During the Dutch regime, the Jews prospered in, "Sugar industry, tax farming and slave trade."[2] It is interesting to note that the slaves preferred to work for Jews because, while the Portuguese only gave Sunday off and the Dutch gave no day off, the Jews gave both Saturday (Jewish Sabbath) and Sunday as rest days for the slaves.[2]
The Inquistion responded to the Jews' prosperity in Dutch Brazil angrily. The Jews were accused for turning in Brazilian property for the Dutch "heretics". They were accused for being the utmost responsibles for the Portuguese political disaster during the Dutch regime in Brazil.[4] Also, the rapid growth of the Jewish population in Pernambuco worried the Portuguese Christians. They wrote a letter in 1637 to the government requesting the immediate suspension of Jewish migration to the Captaincy. They mentioned the fact that Jews are Christ's enemy and therefore cannot be the friends of Catholics. Their letter, however, was ignored and the Jews continued to flourish until January 26, 1654, when the Dutch departed from Brazil and returned their conquered territories to Portugal. After that, many Jews fled to other places.[5] Some 24 Jews fled to New Amsterdam, which later became New York City, becoming the first Jews to arrive in the United States.[6]
[edit] The 19th Century
Jews resettled in Brazil in the 1800s, after the country gained its independence, and immigration rose throughout the 19th and early 20th century. In the late 1880s, members of the Zionism movement considered settling many Jews in Brazil to escape Russian pogroms, but strict immigration laws and political strife led to this plan being abandoned. The immigrants who did come to Brazil arrived from many different Jewish communities around the world, making the community in Brazil very diverse, in many ways a microcosm of Brazilian society in general. Generally, the community has escaped major persecution, despite the government banning all organizations of immigrant communities including Jewish communal organizations for a time during World War II.
[edit] Present-day Jewish community
There are about 96,000 Jews in Brazil today, and they play an active role in politics, sports, academia, trade and industry, and are overall well integrated in all spheres of Brazilian life. The majority of Brazilian Jews live in the state of São Paulo but there are also sizeable communities in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, and Paraná.
Jews lead an open religious life in Brazil and there are rarely any reported cases of anti-semitism in the country. In the main urban centers there are schools, associations and synagogues where Brazilian Jews can practice and pass on Jewish culture and traditions.
Some Jewish schoolars say that the only form of threat which faces Judaism in Brazil is the relatively high frequence of intermarriage. There have been, however, some instances of vandalism in Jewish cemeteries after Israel's attacks in Lebanon, like the ones in Belo Horizonte in 2007.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ (2007) American Jewish Year Book 107. American Jewish Committee., to see chapter used, see "World Jewish Population, 2007"
- ^ a b c d e f Oreck, Alden. Brazil. The Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved on 2008-06-09.
- ^ "Synagogue in Brazilian town Recife considered oldest in the Americas". Haaretz. November 12, 2007. Accessed on June 9, 2008.
- ^ Novinsky, Anita. “Jewish Roots of Brazil”. Inquisição em Portugal e no Brasil. Laboratório de Estudos sobre a Intolerância da FFLCH/USP. Accessed on June 9, 2008.
- ^ (Portuguese) "Arqueologia da Sinagoga Kahal Zur Israel". Brasil Arqueológico. Equipe do Laboratório de Arqueologia da Uiversidade de Pernambuco. Accessed on June 9, 2008.
- ^ Sheldon, Betsy (2000). The Jewish Travel Guide. Hunter Publishing, Inc., 129. ISBN 1556508794. “This was the starting point for Jews in America: In 1654, a small group just shy of two dozen sailed into New Amsterdam, more by accident then by intent. The Jews from Brazil, bound for shores more secure than the Spanish-controlled colonies where the Inquisition still threatened, found a safe, if not welcome, harbor.”
[edit] Partial bibliography
Jeffrey Lesser. Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN 0520084136.
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