President Joao Boptista Figueiredo told a delegation of American Jewish Committee officials that “I hold the people of Israel in high esteem.”
In a 40-minute meeting with the delegation, headed by AJCommittee president Maynard Wishner, the President recalled that before taking office, while he was a general in the army, he spent six weeks in Israel, including two days in a kibbutz near the Golan Heights. He said he was “deeply impressed” by Israel’s hard working people, especially the kibbutzniks.
Figueireab also praised Brazil’s Jewish community which he said was “fully integrated into the economic, industrial, academic and political life of the country.” He also assured the delegation that no Brazilian government would tolerate any kind of discrimination against Jews or any other ethnic group.
While in Brazil, the AJCommittee delegation also met with the Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Dom Eugenio Salles, who told the 11-member group that he will order all the churches in his archdiocese to delete from prayers and textbooks all remaining negative references to Jews.
The delegation, which is on a study mission of Jewish life in South America, will also visit Argentina, Chile and Uruguay where they will meet with the nations’ Presidents and Jewish communal leaders.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
