The eyes of the world are focused on the soccer fields of Brazil, but a group of Argentinian Jews here has a slightly different focus. For them, the World Cup is an excuse to make a three-day, 1,700-mile pilgrimage to sites of both soccer and cultural significance. Mariano Schlez, Maxi Klein and Damian Beker decided…
The Jewish community of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil concluded the launch of its first eruv — an area where Orthodox Jews may carry items outside their homes on Shabbat. The new eruv of Copacabana and Ipanema — two southern neighborhoods that are famous for their beach scenes — was certified last week by Kolel…
The preservation of an historic synagogue in Sao Paolo, Brazil has received a major boost with about $422,000 in seed money from the German Foreign Ministry. The German Consul General in Sao Paulo signed an agreement earlier this month directing the funds to be used to begin the restoration and preservation of the Beth El…
The popular Brazilian actress Tata Werneck apologized for comments she made about Jews on a national talk show. Werneck said in a statement about her remarks on “Love & Sex” that she was “deeply troubled” by the reaction she has stirred in the Jewish community, Yahoo! Entertainment reported. The president of the Jewish Confederation of…
Brazilian archaeologists unearthed what they said are the 500-year-old remains of a Jewish man in Recife. A report Thursday in the online edition of the Rio de Janeiro-based O Globo described the discovery earlier this month as a perfectly-preserved skeleton of a male adult. The skeleton was found during earthwork in Recife in northern Brazil,…
When Alan Rochlin joined hundreds of thousands of Israelis who took to the streets in 2011 to protest skyrocketing living costs, he never imagined he would be doing the same in his native Brazil just two years later. But as Brazilians made international headlines in late June with massive anti-government protests, Rochlin, a 21-year-old marketing…
Peering in from the outside, it may be tricky to understand what’s going on in Brazil right now Unlike Tunisians and Egyptians, Brazilians did not take to the streets in historic demonstrations last week to overthrow an authoritarian government. After enduring a two-decade-long dictatorship, we’ve been living under democratic rule since the mid-1980s, and those…
Simon Wiesenthal Center officials presented a program to authorities in Brazil on dealing with racism in sports, notably soccer, as the nation readies for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. “Eleven Points Against Racism in Football” was presented Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro by Shimon Samuels, the center’s director for international relations, and…
