Marcus M. Gilban RSS

is JTA's correspondent in Rio de Janeiro. A freelance journalist and columnist, he contributes to Brazilian Jewish newspapers, magazines and news portals.

Latest

• Jewish lawmaker to lead major Brazilian city chamber

  December 13, 2017 10:42am

  RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — A Jewish lawmaker will preside over the municipal chamber of the city that is home to Brazil’s third largest Jewish community. Valter Nagelstein, who has been serving as Porto Alegre municipal chamber’s vice president since 2016, was elected president Monday and will assume the position on Jan. 1, reported the Brazilian news website…

• One of Brazil’s oldest synagogues to be rededicated 100 years after it opened

  December 6, 2017 7:49am

  SÃO PAULO, Brazil (JTA) — The second oldest congregation in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most Jewish-populated city, will dedicate a new synagogue next year, a century after it was opened. Knesset Israel was founded in Sao Paulo in 1916. Usually referred to by its nickname, Groisse Shil, Yiddish for “big synagogue,” it was completed in the central…

• Brazil honors diplomat who presided over 1947 UN vote for partition plan

  November 30, 2017 7:33am

  RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — A Brazilian diplomat who played a crucial role in the creation of the State of Israel 70 years ago was remembered in his country at several ceremonies. Oswaldo Aranha as president of the U.N. General Assembly presided over the vote held on Nov. 29, 1947, and heavily lobbied for the majority…

• Colombia expels Israeli accused of running illegal sex tourism

  November 27, 2017 11:15am

  RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Colombia has expelled an Israeli national accused of running an illegal tourism network that offered trips with drugs and underage prostitutes. Assi Ben-Mosh, 43, was put on a plane Sunday that was scheduled to stop in Spain on its way to Israel. He is banned from returning to Colombia for 10…

• Brazilian media celebrates Miss Israel’s local roots

  November 19, 2017 9:07am

  RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — An Israeli beauty queen’s Brazilian roots have put her in the spotlight in local media. Adar Gandelman, who is in Las Vegas ahead of the Miss International Beauty Pageant on Nov. 26, has this month been the subject of a number of positive stories in her parents’ native country. “I have everything…

• Mexico says it will start voting with Israel in international bodies

  November 19, 2017 7:32am

  RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted a message of gratitude to Mexico following its announcement that it would not vote against the Jewish state in upcoming votes at the United Nations. “Thank you President of Mexico @EPN and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Videgaray for refusing to go along with one…

• Frans Krajcberg, Jewish sculptor and protector of Brazil’s forests, dies at 96

  November 16, 2017 8:32am

  RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Frans Krajcberg, one of Brazil’s most acclaimed sculptors and environmentalists, has died. The Polish-born Jewish artist, who lost nearly his entire family in the Holocaust, died in a Rio hospital Wednesday. He was 96. An accomplished painter, engraver and photographer, he was most famous for his sculptures made from tree…

• Brazilian students simulate Nazi human experiments for science fair

  November 14, 2017 10:35am

  RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Brazilian high school students simulated medical experiments that the Nazis conducted on concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust. The students at Milecimo da Silva high school in Rio De Janeiro were recently assigned to re-create a Nazi laboratory for a science fair. According to the Brazilian Israelite Confederations, the country’s umbrella Jewish…

• Chilean presidential candidate calls Israel ‘a threat to world peace’

  November 14, 2017 7:59am

  RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — A candidate in Chile’s upcoming presidential election declared Israel “a threat to world peace.” Eduardo Artes, leader of the leftist Patriotic Union party, made the comment in an interview broadcast Friday with Chile’s HispanTV. He also pledged that as president he would conduct a comprehensive review of his country’s relations with the…

• Brazil official in Israel is most senior to visit in nearly a decade

  October 31, 2017 12:19pm

  RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – The president of Brazil’s chamber of deputies is the country’s most senior official to visit Israel in nearly a decade. Rodrigo Maia, the first in line for succession to run the country since Vice President Michel Temer replaced President Dilma Rousseff in August following her ouster by the Senate, met Knesset…