Brazil

History of Jewish immigration

The first Jews to arrive in Brazil were during the Inquisition.
Portuguese Jews who began to colonize the land and secretly practicing Judaism.

In 1636, the Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue was built in Recife, (capital of Dutch Brazil), reopened in 2001).

During the Dutch regime, the Jews prospered economically, but between 1647 and 1773 the Inquisition forced the Brazilians jews to emigrate to other places as Curazao and New York where they established new communities.
In 1773, a royal decree portugues finally abolished discrimination against Jews.

They slowly filtered back into Brazil and almost 50 years later, in 1822, Brazil gained independence from Portugal, and a group of Moroccan Jews began to arrive o Brazil, and established in 1824 a Synagogue in Belem (northern Brazil) called Porta do Ceu (Gate of Heaven ), and later, a Sephardic Synagogue in Manaus (in the Amazon).

At the end of 1800, new Jewish immigrants settled in Brazil, fleeing the Russian pogroms and settled there to work the land. These members then left the colonies and created rich cultural communities in Brazilian cities.

By World War I, approximately 7,000 Jews lived in Brazil.
In the 1920s, nearly 30,000 Western European Jews arrived to Brazil, and in 1929, there were 27 Jewish schools.

Despite a strict immigration policy in the 1930s, more than 17,500 Jews Entered Brazil.

Currently, there are about 96,000 Jews in Brazil playing an active role in politics, sports, academia, business and industry.

In major urban centers there are schools, Jewish associations and synagogues.
Most Jews living in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, but there are also important communities in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais and Parana.

A little about the country

Brazil is a country in South America, comprising the eastern half of the continent and some groups of small islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

With estimated at over 8.5 million km. The Amazon rainforest covers 3.6 million km of its territory.

Its population is approximately 191.5 million people (as of 2009).
Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas.

At the political level, is a federal republic by the union of 26 federal states and the Federal District, divided into 5,564 municipalities.

Brasilia is the capital and most populous city Sao Paulo.

For the most part, the country is between the terrestrial tropics, so the seasons do not feel in a radical way in much of the same. Thanks to Amazon and its climate, is the country with the most species of animals in the world.

The currency is the Real.