Brazilian Rabbi Claims Anti-semitism Worse in U.S. Than Latin America

A Brazilian rabbi told an audience in Jerusalem yesterday that anti-Semitism in Latin America is less serious than in the United States but is blown up out of proportion by the American Jewish media.

He also asserted that many Jews in Brazil identified themselves with the military regime and viewed the liberal elements of the Catholic church and Jews who cooperated with it to ease political repression as a threat to the status quo which they favored.

The remarks of Rabbi Henry Sobel, of Sao Paulo, at the international congress of the World Union for Progressive Judaism at the Jerusalem Hilton Hotel yesterday, were made available to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here. Rabbi Sobel is spiritual leader of the Congregacao Israelita Paulista, a liberal (Reform) congregation in Brazil’s second largest city.

“The alarmists in Latin America have no credibility whatsoever, ” Sobel said. “Anti-Semitism is much more serious in the United States than in Latin America. I find it significant that the American Jewish press gives more coverage to anti-Semitic incidents abroad than at home. If every act of anti-Jewish vandalism in the States were to be reported, it might seem that being a Jew in America these days is a very dangerous thing, ” he said.

SITUATION IN BRAZIL

Sobel acknowledged that latent anti-Semitism does exist in Brazil. “A survey that was conducted in Sao Paulo revealed that 12.7 percent of the population considers Jews ‘inferior’ to other Brazilians,” he said. “And yet, overt manifestations of anti-Semitism are sporadic. The few that occur are fed by a ‘pragmatic’ anti-Israel government policy. Pro-PLO groups used the Israeli operation in Lebanon as an excuse to intensify their public demonstrations on behalf of their own objective; the opening of a PLO office in Brazil, which incidentally until now has not been authorized, not because of the Brazilian government’s solidarity with Israel, but rather because of internal security and ideological factors,” Sobel explained.

He said that “Brazil is undergoing a tremendous transformation. After 19 years, the country is feeling its way back to democratic rule. The military still remain in control, but for the first time since 1964 we had free gubernatorial elections and the opposition won in the most influential states in the country. Many Jews politically identified with the military regime saw the (Catholic) Church as a threat to the status quo. Because Brazilian Jews associated the progressive church with Communist ideology … that is why my personal relationship with the Cardinal-Archbishop (of Sao Paulo, Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns) is very much a point of controversy within the Jewish establishment,” Sobel said.

“But,” he added, “the Cardinal gave us full support and we created together a National Commission for Jewish-Catholic Dialogue under the sponsorship of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil. The Committee meets on a monthly basis, alternating between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with five active progressive spokesmen on each side,” Sobel said.

He saw intermarriage and assimilation as the greatest threats to Brazilian Jewry. “Intermarriage in Brazil in particular and in Latin America in general is a cancer which grows. We do not celebrate mixed marriages without conversion but we do encourage the non-Jewish partner to convert. Incidentally, the progressive rabbis are the only ones who celebrate ‘Gyiur’ (perform conversions) in Brazil,” Sobel said.