Most people have heard of the Spanish Inquisition, but the Portuguese Inquisition is relatively unknown. An important aspect of the First International Congress on the Inquisition, held here in May and in Lisbon in February, was bringing to light the impact of the Inquisition on Portugal and its colony, Brazil. Professor Angel Alcala of Brooklyn… More ▸
The National Bishops’ Conference of Brazil has issued a 187-page “Guide for a Catholic-Jewish Dialogue in Brazil,” according to Rabbi Henry Sobel, coordinator of the National Commission for Catholic-Jewish Dialogue sponsored by the Bishop’s Conference there. Sobel, who heads the commission of five Jewish and five Catholic leaders, is rabbi at Congregacao Israelita Paulista in… More ▸
At least four outspoken anti-Israel candidates were defeated in the national and state elections held November 15, according to the final results just published. One of them is Pastor Elias Boaventura, former head of the Methodist University in Piracicaba, Sao Paulo State. Boaventura signed an agreement earlier this year with Palestine Liberation Organization representative Farid… More ▸
A World Jewish Congress delegation visiting here last week submitted to the Foreign Ministry the secret United Nations War Crimes Commission file on Austrian President Kurt Waldheim which labeled him a Nazi war criminal. The file, dating from 1947, recommended that Waldheim stand trial for “murder” and “putting hostages to death” when he was a… More ▸
Brazil’s Jewish community of about 150,000 is a tiny percentage of the country’s 130 million people, but there is a significant number of Jewish candidates for office in this year’s November 15 election. Those elected to the federal legislature will also draft Brazil’s new Constitution. While the Jewish community, as community, does not take a… More ▸
Jews as individuals have always worked on human rights and social justice during Brazil’s authoritarian regimes, but there has been no community stance. Rabbi Henry Sobel of Congregacao Israelita Paulista here is considered the outstanding example of an individual who is a leader of the community, and at the forefront of the human rights struggle…. More ▸
During the days of the dictatorship of Getulio Vargas here (1930-1945), many Jews, especially Communists, were in the forefront of the human rights struggle. Many were jailed or expelled from Brazil. A not-able example is Olga Prestes, Jewish wife of the leader of the Communist opposition. She was deported to her native Germany in 1941… More ▸
Brazil’s top leaders, headed by its new president Jose Sarney, paid a formal visit to the exposition of the Jewish book fair here, the World Jewish Congress reported today. According to the Latin American branch of the WJC, the Brazilian President and other government officials were shown through the fair by Gerson Bergher, president of… More ▸
Isser Harel, who as former head of the Mossad was instrumental in the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann in 1961, insisted here that the Auschwitz death camp doctor Josef Mengele is still alive despite the conclusions of a report issued in Brazil last week that a skeleton exhumed from a graveyard there was… More ▸
The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center today presented Brazilian authorities with documents relevant to the investigation of the body exhumed at a cemetery in Enbu, near Sao Paulo, which may be that of the notorious death camp doctor, Josef Mengele. The Center’s legal counsel in Washington, Martin Mendelsohn, presented the documents, requested by the Brazilian… More ▸
