Description

Address: Rua Capelao Alvares da Silva 15
Phonenumber: +55 (21) 2255-0191 / 2235-6247
Link: www.sinagogadecopacabana.com.br

Orthodox Synagogue
Rabbi Eliezer Stauber

The Kehilat Yaacov Synagogue in Copacabana was inaugurated on September 2, 1956, by Belgian Jews, being the oldest orthodox synagogue in the southern zone of Rio de Janeiro.

History: One could say that the Kehilat Yaacov synagogue exists thanks to the Brazilian ambassador in Bordeaux, Sousa Dantas, who with his sense of justice and solidarity granted entry visas in the country to several Belgian families, especially Jews from Antwerp, in 1940. One of them was Raphael Zimetbaum, born in June 1928.
In 1940, Belgium was invaded by Nazi troops. The Zimetbaums had to leave the country and seek escape routes on French roads. They were intercepted by German troops and prisoners for five weeks. Thanks to Sousa Dantas, they obtained entry visas for Brazil.

Here, they found their compatriots and settled in Copacabana, which at that time was just beginning to be populated. Brazil emerged as the "country of the future," as Stefan Zweig predicted, and Copacabana was the Little Princess of the Sea. As soon as they arrived, they felt a lack of a place where they could take care of their spiritual life close to home.

At the beginning of the 1940s they met at the bottom of a house on Barata Ribeiro Street. There they could perform the services of daily prayers, but in the big parties they had to rent some salons in another area of the city.

In 1954, negotiations began for the construction of a synagogue.
They found a suitable plot in the neighborhood of Peixoto, in the street Capelão Álvares da Silva, where they inaugurated their new synagogue in 1956, where the Kehilat Yaacov, known as the "Synagogue of Copacabana", functions to this day.

Prayers times
Shajarit: Monday to Friday at 7am
Sunday at 8.15am

Minja: Monday to Friday at 6:00 p.m.
Saturdays at 5:30 p.m.

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