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The history of the Jews in Brazil is a rather long and complex one, as it stretches from the very beginning of the European settlement in the new continent. Jews started settling in Brazil ever since the Inquisition reached Portugal in the 16th century. They arrived in Brazil during the period of Dutch rule, setting up in Recife the first synagogue in the Americas as early as 1636. Most of those Jews were Sephardic Jews who had fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal to the religious freedom of the Netherlands. Adam Smith attributed much of the development of Brazil's sugar industry and cultivation to the arrival of Portuguese Jews who were forced out of Portugal during the inquisition.〔Smith, Adam (1776), (Wealth of Nations ), Penn State Electronic Classics edition, republished 2005, p.476〕 (See History of Pernambuco#Jews in Pernambuco). After the first Brazilian constitution in 1824 that granted freedom of religion, Jews began to arrive gradually in Brazil. Many Moroccan Jews arrived in the 19th century, principally because of the rubber boom, settling on the Amazon. Waves of Jewish immigration occurred first by Russian and Polish Jews escaping pogroms and the Russian Revolution, and then during the 1930s during the rise of Nazis in Europe. In the late 1950s, another wave of immigration brought thousands of North African Jews. Nowadays, the Jewish communities thrive in Brazil and there are several Jewish and Zionist groups, clubs, schools, etc. Some minor antisemitic events and acts occurred mainly during the 2006 Lebanon War such as vandalism of Jewish cemeteries. Brazil has the 9th largest Jewish community in the world, about 107,329 by 2010, according to the IBGE Census.〔(2010 Brazilian census ) Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Retrieved on 2013-11-13〕 The Jewish Confederation of Brazil (CONIB) estimates that there are more than 120,000 Jews in Brazil.〔 ==First Jewish arrivals== There have been Jews in what is now Brazil since the first Portuguese arrived in the country in 1500, notably Mestre João and Gaspar da Gama who arrived in the first ships. A number of Sephardic Jews immigrated to Brazil during its early settlements. They were known as "New Christians" (Conversos or Maranos, Jews obliged to convert to Roman Catholicism by the Portuguese crown). They were eventually absorbed in the Catholic population, though some traditions in Brazil, especially in the north-eastern region of the country, seem to be of Jewish customs "twisted" into superstition. It is estimated that at least 17 million Brazilians have Sephardic Jewish ancestry, most of whom are to be found to the northeast of the country. DNA testing has revealed that some Portuguese males have Sephardic ancestry; thus many Brazilians, most of whom have a degree of Portuguese ancestry, are also of Jewish ancestry, although most would not say so. Most sources state that the first synagogue of Belém, ''Sha'ar haShamaim'' ("Gate of Heaven"), was founded in 1824. There are, however, controversies; Samuel Benchimol, author of ''Eretz Amazônia: Os Judeus na Amazônia'', affirms that the first synagogue in Belém was ''Eshel Avraham'' ("Abraham's Tamarisk") and that it was established in 1823 or 1824, while ''Sha'ar haShamaim'' was founded in 1826 or 1828. The Jewish population in the capital of Grão-Pará had by 1842 an established necropolis.〔Scheinbein, Cássia (2006). (“Línguas em extinção: o hakitia em Belém do Pará” ). Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, p.45〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Jews in Brazil」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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