Orthodox Shul Opens Near Brazil’s Iconic Ipanema Beach
Ipanema Beach, Brazil Image by Getty Images
An Orthodox synagogue was opened officially a few blocks from the iconic Ipanema Beach in Brazil.
Some 1,200 people attended Sunday’s inauguration of the four-story, 440-seat synagogue in Rio de Janeiro named for Edmond Safra, the late Brazilian Jewish billionaire and philanthropist whose foundation funded much of the project.
The 20,000-square foot building, which replaces a much smaller synagogue, took some 25 years to be established. White stones for the building’s facade were shipped from Jerusalem.
The smaller shul, Agudat Israel, was built in the 1970s on the rear of another building. The congregation of some 1,000 families is made up mostly of Sephardic families originally from Syria and Lebanon.
The new complex includes mikvahs, a social hall, classrooms, a beit midrash and a recreation area, according to Shirley Nigri Farber, editor and publisher of the Shalom Magazine.
Last year, Ipanema, an upscale neighborhood that is home to many affluent Jews, and the adjacent coastal neighborhood of Copacabana received a new eruv, a demarcation of an area that permits observant Jews to carry objects on Shabbat.
Rio, Brazil’s second largest city, is home to between 35,000 and 40,000 Jews.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
