The Jewish Community of Recife

Recife

A city in northeastern Brazil, capital of the state of Pernambuco, fourth-largest urban agglomeration in Brazil. 

When Recife became a prosperous center for sugar production in the 16th and 17th centuries, Portuguese settlers of Jewish descent and New Christians or crypto-Jews were already living in the town and its environs. They gave impetus to sugar production and commerce. The large number of New Christians in Recife (including the first historian of Brazilian economic life, Ambrosio Brondao), took part in a variety of activities, and bound themselves through intermarriage to prestigious old Christian families.

Denunciations on the part of inquisitional officers and of "Friends of the Holy Office" acquainted the inquisitors with a great number of Portuguese - for the most part new Christians - who did not conform to the fixed patterns of behavior imposed by the Church. Thus the new Christian Diego Fernandez, the greatest expert in sugar plantations, was accused by the Inquisition of being a "judaizer." the Inquisition dispatched an official inspector (visitator) for the purpose of seizing and confiscating the suspects' possessions, and an inquisitional commission was established in 1593 in Olinda, the port of Recife. New Christians were tried and arrested; some were taken to Lisbon and handed over to the inquisitional tribunal. After the inspector had left, surveillance of New Christians was continued by the bishop of Brazil, with the assistance of the local clergy and Jesuits. In 1630 Pernambuco was occupied by the Dutch, and it remained in their hands until 1654. This was an important period in Jewish history in Latin America, as Brazil was the only region - during colonial times - where Jews were permitted to practice their religion openly and establish an organized community.

Its members were mainly Jews from Holland, joined by new Christians already living in the colony. The Jews of Recife were known as financiers, brokers, sugar exporters, and suppliers of negro slaves. Their congregation, Tzur Israel, maintained a synagogue, the religious schools Talmud Torah and Etz Chayim, and a cemetery. In 1642 the first rabbi of the New World, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, arrived from Holland, accompanied by the Chakham Moses Rafael de Aguilar and a large number of immigrants. The synagogue's cantor was Josue Velosino, and notables included David Senior Coronel, Abraham de Mercado, Jacob Mocatta, and Isaac Castanho. According to the minute books of the congregation, there were approximately 1,450 Jews in Dutch brazil in 1645; the number diminished to 720 in 1648 and to 650 in 1654. The majority lived in Recife and its environs. Despite official tolerance, however, the Jews were victims of hostility and discrimination at the hands of Calvinists and Catholics. With the
start of the Reconquest, the Jews were victimized by both the Dutch and the Portuguese, and in 1645 various Jewish prisoners were executed as allies of the Dutch; others were sent to Lisbon and handed over to the Inquisition; still others returned to Holland. After several years of fighting, the Portuguese succeeded in reconquering the territory thanks to the creation of the Commercial Company for Brazil (in Lisbon), most of whose capital came from New Christians. After the fall of Recife, the Jewish community disintegrated, and those who had openly professed their Judaism left Brazil together with the Dutch. These emigrants developed the sugar industry of the Antilles. After many difficulties, 23 of these Jewish emigrants arrived in New Amsterdam, where they founded the first Jewish community of what later became the town of New York.

New Christians continued to live in Recife, some as crypto-Jews. Two decades after the departure of the Dutch, the Inquisition was also acquainted with and persecuted the New Christians who had converted to Judaism during the Dutch occupation and had remained in Pernambuco. Many reports reached the Lisbon Inquisition in the second half of the 17th century and during the 18th century regarding their clandestine observance of Jewish rituals. Portuguese policy in the middle of the 18th century eventually enabled the New Christians to mingle with the rest of the population, until their traces disappeared as they became completely assimilated.

The present-day Jewish community in Recife was founded by immigrants from Eastern Europe, particularly Russia, Romania, and Poland, who settled there in the second decade of the 20th century. They number 350 families (1,600 persons) and maintain a Centro israelita, a high school (colegio), whose 350 pupils constitute 90% of all Jewish pupils attending schools, a synagogue, and various Jewish organizations.

In 1997 there was an active Jewish community in Recife. Brazil’s Jewish population then was 130,000, most of them lived in the two largest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.