According to its census, Brazil, with 123 million Roman Catholics, is the largest Catholic nation in the world. If one considers its DNA legacy, however, we find that many white Brazilians descend from Portuguese Jews and New Christians who arrived in the 1500s, fleeing the Inquisition in their home country. If those known variously as conversos, Marranos, crypto-Jews or Anousim had not been obliged through the centuries to abjure their religion, possibly Brazil would not be so predominantly Catholic today.
[This article was first published in the Summer 2017 edition of AVOTAYNU, The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, and is based upon a presentation at the Orlando IAJGS conference in July 2017. To obtain a subscription to AVOTAYNU, please visit https://www.avotaynu.com/journal.htm – Ed.]
In the 517 years of Jewish presence in Brazil, since its discovery in 1500 by the Portuguese fleet of Admiral Pedro Alvares Cabral, many other waves of Jewish immigrants arrived, making Jewish genealogy in Brazil an important field of research, especially now that discovering foreign-born ancestors may lead to second citizenship in countries such as Poland, Portugal, and Italy. This is what happened to 30 members of the Arruda family of the State of Ceará in Brazil’s northeast, who obtained Portuguese citizenship by proving their descendants through 15 generations from Branca Dias, a Portuguese-Jewish woman who died in 1558.
A significant milestone in Brazilian history was the short period of Dutch control of the city of Recife (1630–54), the colonial capital of Brazil’s Pernambuco State, where the first Jewish community in the Americas was established. Jews were able to prosper in the sugar industry, had freedom of belief and built the first synagogue of the Americas, Kahal Kaddosh Zur Israel (Saintly Community of the Rock of Israel). After the Dutch were defeated and expelled, Jews scattered within Brazil and to other places in the world such as Amsterdam, where the Brazilian Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca built the impressive Portuguese Synagogue, still operating today, and to a remote island known today as New York City.
Until 1808, very few signs remained of crypto-Judaism in Brazil, but Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal changed the picture. The Portuguese Courtmoved to Brazil and King Dom João VI opened the harbors of the former colony to all countries, favoring migration from England, Alsace, and Morocco. Moroccan Jews went in considerable numbers to the Amazon and Pará, at the beginning of the “Rubber Cycle,” a boom in rubber exploitation in the rain forest that inaugurated a period of significant economic development, going up the Amazon Riveras far as Iquitos, Peru. In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War motivated the arrival of Jews from Alsace-Lorraine, which was taken from France by Germany and, in 1900, Baron Maurice de Hirsch founded the colonies of Philipson (Santa Maria) and Four Brothers (Erechim) in Southern Brazil, through the Jewish Colonization Association. Small nuclei of Jewish communities were established in the North, in Bahia, and in Rio, and sparse groups of immigrants were to be found in several other areas of Brazil.
After World War I, Brazil experienced an increase in Jewish immigration from Poland, Romania, Germany, Austria, France, and Belgium. Urban concentrations grew in Rio and São Paulo, as did small communities in the interior, less densely populated hinterland. In 1933, refugees began to arrive from Germany, Austria, and Italy, generally well educated and with specialized professions. After World War II, Brazil received refugees and Holocaust survivors, and after the 1956 Suez Canal War, Jewish refugees came from Egypt.
Apart from crypto-Jews, the Jewish population in Brazil diminished considerably from 1654 to 1808, then grew slowly until the beginning of the 20th century. During World War I, 5,000 to 7,000 Jews were present in Brazil, increasing to 55,000 during World War II, predominantly through immigration.
From the 1970s onward, Jews in Brazil increasingly relocated to cities and small communities; almost all disappeared. Jewish presence is now concentrated primarily in the capitals of 13 of Brazil’s 26 states, numbering some 120,000 people, mostly in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Porto Alegre.
Genealogical Research
Jewish genealogy research is not as popular in Brazil today as it is in other countries; the same applies to general genealogy. Only in the last few decades have Jewish historical societies and archives been established, and they must cope with a persistent lack of resources, suitable space, and specialized personnel and technologies, even though there is a strong commitment of a few dedicated volunteers and employees. English is not widely spoken so researchers must be able to read and speak Portuguese.
Around the middle of the 20th century, nearly all landsman societies and some relevant Jewish libraries, schools and some organizations in Brazil disappeared or merged, with a consequent loss of documents. The decline of the Yiddish language contributed to this, as did geographical changes in the community. Fires (Ostrowiec Landsleit) and a building collapse (Jewish Library) added to the loss of records of Jewish institutions, as did the discarding of papers and documents from groups that have ceased to exist or have merged with one another. Only recently has a greater interest developed in preserving the memory of the community.
Outside the Jewish community, there also are some relevant sources of Jewish genealogical and historic information, the main ones being the notarial offices and many federal and state archival agencies known to preserve useful, valuable and reliable information for the researcher.
The main government archive is the Arquivo Nacional (National Archive), (www.arquivonacional.gov.br) in Rio de Janeiro, which holds arrival records for passenger arrivals in Brazilian ports. Records in this archive roughly cover the years 1920 to 1960. When using Brazilian archives, remember the following definitions, Sobrenome (surname), Nome (given name), Buscar or Consultar ( search).
The Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) have done extensive filming in the Arquivo Nacional, and the results may be seen online at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/ 1932363 “Brazil, Immigration Cards, 1900–1965.” These are films of indexes and images of immigration cards created by Brazilian consulates in several countries of the world and presented to the port of entry by foreigners visiting or immigrating to Brazil.
The military archives of the army (www.ahex.ensino.eb.br), navy (www1.mar.mil.br/dphdm) and air force (www. facebook.com/cendoc.fab) also can be searched online.
Biblioteca Nacional (national library), (www.bn.gov.br/y), Av Rio Branco 219, Rio de Janeiro, is the official depositary of all books printed in Brazil. The collections may be searched at http://acervo.bn.br/sophia_web/.
Some organizations abroad hold substantial references for Brazil. The main ones are the Archives of the Municipality of Amsterdam (Dutch Brazil, 1630–1654) and Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo, Lisbon (http://antt. dglab.gov.pt/), the main repository for the Colony of Brazil from 1500 to 1822. Included are the Inquisition records and New Christian names of Brazilians who were prosecuted.
Files on Brazil at the Center for Jewish History in New York include newspapers, magazines and editions of an important bulletin, Gerações (generations), published by the Brazilian Society of Jewish Genealogy, a society that functioned in the 1990s and 2000s.
Private archives include the Colégio Brasileiro de Genealogia (CBG Brazilian Genealogy College), www.cbg.org. br/novo/, Av. Augusto Severo, 8, 20021-040 Rio de Janeiro, telephone 55-21 2221-6000, open for consultation on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 pm. The Getulio Vargas Foundation, (FGV), named after a former president of Brazil,http://cpdoc.fgv.br/acervo/arquivospessoais/consulta, holds many files on Jewish personalities. Recently, Brazil’s leading newspaper, O GLOBO, opened a website that holds all editions since the first on July 29, 1925, http://acervo. oglobo.globo.com/. Obituaries and funeral notices covering nearly a century may be retrieved here.
Post-graduate courses in Brazil began around 1970, and since then the number of theses and master’s/doctoral degree papers and monographs dealing with Brazilian Jewish history has grown greatly. These have a wealth of useful information for genealogists. All Brazilian universities have a databank of thesis papers.
Jewish History
Brazil has some Jewish organizations devoted to history and genealogy as follows:
• Brazilian Jewish Historical Archive (AHJB) was incorporated into the Jewish Museum of São Paulo (MJSP). It probably is the most complete Jewish archive in Brazil, Cdm@museujudaicosp.org.br, telephone 55-11-3088 0879.
• Instituto Cultural Judaico Marc Chagall specializes in Jewish history in Rio Grande do Sul State, including the colonies established by the Jewish Colonization Association a century ago. Rua General João Telles 329, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, @icjmcrs, icjmc@hotmail.com, telephone 55-51-3019-4600.
• Instituto Cultural Judaico Brasileiro Bernardo Schulman has a library and historical files on Jews in Paraná State, saraschulman@gmail.com.
• Arquivo Historico Judaico de Pernambuco holds files on Pernambuco State Jews, home of the first synagogue of the Americas, tnkaufman@gmail.com.
• Instituto Histórico Israelita Mineiro (IHIM) concerns the Jewish history of Minas Gerais State, telephone 55-31-3226-7848, ihimmg@outlook.com.
The Israelite Confederation of Brazil, www.conib.org.br/ comunidades, is the umbrella for 13 state Jewish federations. Brazil has one Holocaust museum, the Museu do Holocausto, in the City of Curitiba, which has data on Shoah survivors, especially in the southern state of Paraná, www.facebook.com/MuseuShoaCuritiba.
Useful Books
Among books of genealogical interest written in Portuguese we have:
Dicionario Sefaradi de Sobrenomes (Sephardic Surnames Dictionary) Faiguenboim, Guilherme; Campagnano, Anna Rosa; Valadares, Paulo; includes New Christians, converts, and marranos, and has 12,000 surnames and 17,000 entries. São Paulo: Fraiha, 2003.
Benchimol, Samuel. Eretz Amazônia—Os Judeus na Amazônia.(Eretz Amazon—Jews in the Amazon) Amazonas: Manaus, Comitê Israelita do Amazonas, 1998.
Malamud, Samuel. Documentário.(Documentary)Rio de Janeiro: Imago, 1992.
Malamud, Samuel. Recordando a Praça Onze (Remembering 11th Square) Rio de Janeiro: Kosmos, 1988.
Frieda and Egon Wolff published 47 books between 1970 and 2001, many of genealogical interest, such as
Breve História da Sociedade do Cemitério Israelita de São Paulo. (A brief history of the Israelite Cemetery Society of Sao Paulo) São Paulo, Scisp, 1989.
Campos – Ascenção e Declínio de uma Coletividade. (Campos—the rise and fall of a collectivity) Rio de Janeiro: Cemitério Comunal Israelita, 1986.
Documentos V.(Documents V). Rio de Janeiro: edição dos autores, (author’s edition) 1994.
Sepulturas Israelitas. (Israelite sepultures). Rio de Janeiro: Centro de Estudos Judaicos, 1976.
Sepulturas Israelitas II. (Israelite sepultures II). Rio de Janeiro: Cemitério Comunal Israelita, 1983.
Sepulturas Israelitas III. (Israelite Sepultures III). Rio de Janeiro: Cemitério Comunal Israelita, 1987.
Two English-language books document more than one thousand Jewish soldiers in the Brazilian armed forces since the discovery of the country in 1500:
Blajberg, Israel. Soldiers Who Come From Afar, Resende, AHIMTB/FIERJ, 2008.
Blajberg Israel. Star of David in the Southern Cross, 2015, Resende, AHIMTB/FIERJ/CONIB, 2008.
Useful Websites
Many web resources hold data on Brazil, some of which are:
AVOTAYNU CD, now “AVOTAYNU Anthology of Jewish Genealogy” contains all articles that have appeared in the International Review of Jewish Genealogy from 1985–2011. It has 58 entries for Brazil. See www. avotaynu. com/ books/Anthology.htm.
Cemeteries: JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR), Brazil (30 cemeteries, 23,679 burials), Vilar dos Telles Cemetery, 4,210 burials; Porto Alegre (two cemeteries, 2,610 burials); Vila Rosaly (two cemeteries, 13,611 burials.
Geni.Com has a project at www.geni.com/projects/Brasil-Portal/7439 for all those interested in the genealogy of Brazil and everything related to the country. It is possible to reach different projects related to Brazil, participate in discussions and share information.
The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People Jerusalem (CAHJP), http://cahjp.nli.org.il/, holds documents on Jewish communities, organizations and schools in Brazil—about 260 files that record Jewish life across the country, Zionist and educational activity.
