History of the Jews in Brazil

The oldest synagogue in the Americas, Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, located in Recife

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.) or Marranos (sp.) — Jews obliged to convert to Roman Catholicism by the Portuguese 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 the Middle East, and others emigrated to countries that tolerated Judaism, such as the Netherlands, England and Germany. Many Sephardic Jews from Holland and England worked with the maritime trade of the Dutch 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 northeast Dutch colony. Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue was the first synagogue in the Americas, established in Recife 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 Dutch North American colony of New Amsterdam, that in 1664 would become New York City.

In the final decades of the 18th century, some Conversos came to southeastern Brazil to work in the gold mines. Many were arrested, accused of Judaism. Brazilian families that descend from the Conversos are mainly concentrated in the states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Pará and Bahia.

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 of Eretz Amazônia: Os Judeus na Amazônia, affirms that the first synagogue in Belém was Eshel Avraham ("Abraham's Tamarisk") and that it was established in 1823 or 1824, while Sha'ar haShamaim was founded in 1826 or 1828.

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

Because of unfavorable conditions in Europe, European Jews began debating in the 1890s about establishing agricultural settlements in Brazil. At first, the plan did not work because of Brazilian political quarrels.

In 1904, the Jewish agricultural colonization, supported by the Jewish Colonization Association, began in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil. The main intention of the JCA in creating those colonies was to resettle Russian Jews during the mass immigration from the hostile Russian 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 the stereotypical image of the non-productive Jew, capable of working only in commerce and finance. 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 the First World War, about 7,000 Jews were inhabiting Brazil. In 1910 in Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, a Jewish school was opened and a Yiddish newspaper, Di Menshhayt ("Humanity") was established in 1915. One year later, the Jewish community of Rio de Janeiro formed an aid committee for World War I victims.

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 in Egeln, Germany.[10]

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

The Albert 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]

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 of swastikas for the purpose of disseminating Nazism. 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 second Holocaust 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 the Anti-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%) in Latin America and the third lowest in all Americas, only behind Canada (14%) and the United States (9%).[23][24]

Jewish population by country (2010)

Brazil has the 10th largest Jewish community in the world, about 107,329 according to the 2010 Brazilian Census.[1] The Jewish 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 of São Paulo, about a quarter in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and there are also sizeable communities in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Bahia, Pará and Amazonas.[25]

The Brazilian Jewish community is composed of Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern European origin and Sephardic Jews of Iberian, North African and Middle Eastern origin. It is unclear which group is more numerous. Both groups exist in the largest cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where they have mixed to some extent. In the North Region most Jews are Sephardic, and in the South 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 of antisemitism 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 scholars say that the only threat facing Judaism in Brazil is the relatively high frequency of intermarriage, which in 2002 was estimated at 60%. Intermarriage is especially high among the country's Jews and Arabs.[27][28] As of 2006, no more than 20% of Brazilian Jews kept kosher.[29] Brazilian Jews exist across a wide religious spectrum, including Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and secular 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 and Zionist. Chabad has a growing influence in Brazil. The majority of Brazilian Jews are Ashkenazi, often of Polish or German descent, while there is a significant Sephardic and Mizrahi minority of mostly Lebanese, Syrian, Moroccan, and Egyptian descent.[30][31]

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

• 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
• History of the Jews in Brazil by Ralph G. Bennett