The 1,300-member Jewish community of Recife, Brazil, which is the site of the oldest known Jewish settlement in the New World, formed a Jewish historical society on the occasion of the recent visit there of Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the American Jewish Congress, Dr. Goldstein reported at a press luncheon here today.
Dr. Goldstein, who toured three of the oldest Jewish settlements in this hemisphere on a mission connected with the opening of the celebration of the American Jewish Tercentenary, said that the present Jewish residents of these cities–Recife; Surinam, Dutch Guiana; and Curacao, Dutch West Indies–enjoy complete economic and political freedom.
He said the community of Surinam, together with the World Jewish Congress, is expected to ask the government to declare a national shrine the site of the oldest synagogue–now in ruins–and cemetery in the Western Hemisphere.
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