Special to the JTA Brazilian Jewish Community Debates Its Role in Forthcoming Elections

Brazil’s advancement on the road to democracy and the forth-coming Parliamentary elections have sparked wide-spread debate within the Jewish community as to its stance regarding the elections and vis-a-vis the democratic process in general, the World Jewish Congress reported here.

As a sign of the new democratic era, elections for the Constituent Assembly have become an issue for heated polemics within the Jewish community, particularly among its institutional leaders. “What should the community do?” they are asking — give its support to individual candidates? Promote Jewish candidates?

This polemic, which reflects the changes that democracy has brought to the Jewish communities of South America, is being waged entirely in the open, and organs such as “Resenha Judaica,” the Jewish communal newspaper here, give it publicity without inhibition.

Benno Milnitzky, president of the Confederacao Israelita do Brasil and president-elect of the WJC Latin American branch, stated:

“The community, since it is not a political party and is integrated into the civilian Brazilian society, cannot have direct representation in the Constituent Assembly. What it can do is to participate in the procedure, acting within the Assembly, to ensure that the constitution to be approved contains safeguards considered indispensable for the proper functioning of the law.”

CONDITIONS FOR SUPPORTING CANDIDATES

Questioned by a reporter on whether there are conditions for the community’s support of individual candidates, Milnitzky replied in the negative. He added that “The candidates represent parties with varying, and even opposing, ideologies It is the community’s duty, however, to guide the voters who belong to it with regard to the various ideologies and concerning candidates who, in one way or another manner, are hostile to the community.”

Jose Knoplich, president of the Jewish Federation of Sao Paulo, wrote in an article that “The Federation will not remain with folded arms in these forthcoming elections, and intends to mobilize the yishuv (Jewish community) so that Sao Paulo may have a Jewish representation in the Constituent Assembly.”

Knoplich explained that the Sao Paulo Federation will make sure that the most important parties, when appointing candidates of Jewish origin, do so in contact with the Federation “so as to avoid harmful divisions.”

Another well-known Jewish leader, Marcos Arbaitman, feels that community leadership should support one Jewish candidate capable of being elected, in order to avoid the dispersal and waste of Jewish votes.

The leader of the Sao Paulo Hebraica, Bernardo Goldfarb, intervened in the debate to state that “The Jewish Federation is not qualified to indicate anybody,” adding, “We have to defend our interests vis-a-vis the entire Constituent Assembly, and make the elected candidates aware of the community’s points of view.”

Since the establishment of the civilian regime in Brazil a year ago, there has been an avalanche of appointments of Jewish public officials in the State and municipal administration. Some are linked to the Jewish community, many are not.

With Parliamentary elections in the offing, the majority of Jewish candidates have chosen to contest seats in the State Parliaments. At this level, their chances are better than on the federal level, since the entire Jewish population of Brazil is no more than one percent of the general population.