Community Magazine October 2019

36 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Higienópolis neighborhood of São Paulo HOME TO A FLOURISHING JEWISH COMMUNITY MACHLA ABRAMOVITZ B razil, located within the northern part of South America, contains immense tropical rain forests and is home to the mighty Amazon River, the second largest river in the world, that snakes through Brazil’s massive territory. Summers are hot and humid, while winters are colder and drier. In São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city, with about 17 million people, the heat and cold can shift within the blink of an eye. The weather, like Brazil’s politics, keeps residents on their toes. In contrast to the wildness of the tropical forests, the Higienópolis neighborhood of São Paulo is a quiet, tree-lined suburb. The neighborhood is predominantly residential and is dotted with pricey, multi-story apartment buildings. It is here that São Paulo’s Torah community lives, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi. This is where they pray, raise their children, and prosper. Congregation Beit Yaacov, Joseph Safra’s Dream Within the larger Sephardic community, Congregação e Beneficiência Sefaradi Paulista Beit Yaacov resides. Comprised of 600 Torah-observant families from the Levant, the community is close-knit and is highly protective of their privacy. But open some doors, and you will find a vibrant, and influential community, one of Levant Jewry’smost closely guarded secrets. The community’s accomplishments speak for themselves. Visitors walking along Veiga Filho Street, for instance, cannot help but admire a massive, architecturally striking building of unparalleled beauty – Congregation Beit Yaacov, a magnificent structure built in the neo-classical style. Inaugurated in 1995, it is the brainchild of Joseph Safra, one of the community’s most distinguished founders. He and his brother Edmond immigrated to Brazil in 1952 from Beirut, Lebanon. Their father, Jacob Elie Safra, joined them a year later. In 1955, Joseph founded Banco Safra, Brazil’s sixth largest private bank. Visitors are stunned by the synagogue’s open, sunny interior, its outstanding woodwork, and its massive size. It can comfortably accommodate about 2,000 people. The sifrei Torah , some brought from Aleppo and Beirut, are housed behind the velvet-clad parochet . The community boasts 40 sifrei Torah , distributed among the community’s many synagogues. Each synagogue tells its own story of the Beit Yaacov society’s development. 1950s and ’60s Jewish Sephardic Immigrants Make Their Mark During the 1950s, when Syrian and Lebanese Jews began arriving to São Paulo, Jews prayed in the ancient Abolição Synagogue, which was founded in 1929 by Jews from Turkey, Morocco, Greece, and Italy. Because maintaining their traditional nusach , prayers, and customs was so important to these new immigrants, they established their own minyan within this building where they prayed according to the tradition of Aram Soba. But with the growing numbers of Jews from Aleppo and Lebanon, including Jews from Rio de Janeiro who were moving into São Paulo, it was clear that the community needed a separate synagogue, as well as its own schools and programs. On Oct. 21, 1950, the nonprofit Congregação Sefardi Paulista Beit Yaacov was established, under the honorary presidency of Jacob Elie Safra and Rabbi Yitzhak Dayan, an Aleppo mohel. The society’s first order of business was to build the Beit Yaacov Synagogue, located on Bela Cintra Street in another neighborhood. The synagogue was completed in 1964. The building itself was completely funded by the Safra family. The Cintra Street synagogue housed talmud Torahs , study rooms, and libraries. Meanwhile, Syrian and Lebanese Jews living in the Higienópolis neighborhood began attending Congregation Mekor Haim, which was founded in 1967 by Egyptian Jews who had immigrated to Brazil after the SuezWar in 1956. Rabbi Moshe Dayan served as the congregation’s spiritual leader until his passing in 1982, when Rabbi Isaac Dichi took over. Later, Beit Yaacov built another synagogue in Guarujá, a summer resort town, which serves community members during the summer and on weekends. Inmany regards, the Veiga Filho Street Congregation Beit Yaacov, under the religious authority of Rabbi Efraim Laniado, Rabbi Avraham Cohen, and Rabbi David Weitman, represents the heart of this well-established community. Not only are weddings, bar mitzvoth, and brit milahs held there regularly, it is also a House of Study. Renowned Torah scholars lecture there, as do secular scholars speaking on subjects of concern to the community and world Jewry. A Testament to the Community’s Jewish Commitment and Resilience Moreover, Congregation Beit Yaacov is a testament to the community's profound commitment to its spiritual heritage, as well as to the community's resilience and ability to overcome political and economic challenges in Syria and Lebanon, and in their adoptive country of Brazil. Before the Jewish immigrants’ arrival in the 1950s, Brazil’s relationship with its Jews had been shaky. Jewish immigration had reached its peak BRAZIL –