JEWS AND ARABS FIND SUCCESS IN BRAZIL
By John Fitzpatrick
Gringoes.com, Brazil
Oct 10 2005
Jews have been coming to Brazil since the country was first discovered
by the Portuguese in 1500. One of Pedro Alvares Cabral´s crew was a
New Christian, as Jews who had been forcibly converted to Catholicism
were known. Fernando de Noronha, who gave his name to the archipelago
off the Northeastern coast, was another New Christian and arrived in
1503. These New Christians were subsequently banned from entering the
country in 1567 but many continued to enter clandestinely. They were
active in the sugar trade in Pernambuco and owned around 200 sugar
cane plantations by the end of the 16th century.
The Dutch invasion of the Northeast in the mid 17th century brought
hundreds of Jews from Holland. The Dutch were tolerant and allowed the
Jews to practice their faiths and the New Christians to return to their
old beliefs. The oldest synagogue in the Americas was built in Recife
in 1637. Although most of these Jews were originally of Portuguese or
Spanish descent they repaid their Dutch hosts by supporting them during
the rebellions by the Portuguese and Brazilians against Dutch rule
in 1645-54. More than 200 years later, Jews were among the millions
who arrived in Brazil during the period of mass immigration at the
end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century. Most were
Ashkenazi Jews who came mainly from eastern Europe and Russia. Others
arrived in the 30s to escape from the growing Nazi threat.
It is difficult to know how many Jews there are in Brazil and
estimates range from around 87,000 to 150,000. The higher figure is
probably more accurate but, in any case, Jews represent a miniscule
fraction of the entire population of over 180 million. Argentina
has a larger Jewish population, put at around 250,000. Brazil´s Jews
have flourished in a number of areas, including business, finance,
the media and the arts. Large Jewish-owned concerns include the
Klabin pulp and paper company, the Bloch publishing house and the
Safra financial group. Unlike Brazil´s Arabs, they have generally
steered clear of politics. Prominent Jews include Silvio Santos,
owner of the SBT television channel and other media outlets, Celso
Lafer, the former foreign minister in the Fernando Henrique Cardoso
government, Roberto Justus, an advertising executive who recently
launched a local equivalent of the Donald Trump television show “The
Apprentice”, actress Deborah Bloch, and the chief rabbi, Henry Sobel.
The Arabs, or Moors as they were known, had occupied much of the
Iberian peninsula for hundred of years before being expelled.
Although Moors, as such, may not have been among the first visitors,
many of the Portuguese arrivals must have been of Moorish descent.
Arabs did not begin arriving en masse until the late 19th and early
20th century. They were mainly Christian Lebanese and Syrians fleeing
the Moslem Ottoman Empire. Unlike many other immigrants who received
subsidies from their home governments, these Arabs paid their own
passage. To make things worse, they arrived with passports issued by
their hated Turkish overlords and were immediately labelled “Turks”
by the Brazilians, who (as any resident foreigner knows) have never
been very good at discerning one nationality from another.
While some Arabs traveled around the country as peddlers others
formed large communities in places like Rio and São Paulo. They
crowded into areas like Rua 22 de Marco in downtown São Paulo and
were active in the textiles and clothing trade. (Jews, meanwhile,
were plying a similar trade in the Bom Retiro district only a few
blocks away.) If you visit Rua 22 de Marco today you will see that
most of the shops and warehouse still bear Arab names. There was a
further influx of Lebanese during the civil war which affected the
country in the 70s and 80s. Many of these were Moslems. There are also
smaller numbers of Palestinians. It has been estimated that around
7% of Brazil´s population is of Arab descent. Personally, I find
this hard to believe but there are certainly hundreds of thousands
of Brazilians bearing Arab names and millions more with some Arab
(and Jewish) blood, whether they know it or not.
The Arabs have done well in a number of areas including trade,
agriculture, finance, industry and politics. A look at the names of
the members of Brazil´s Congress attests to the Lebanese and Syrian
ancestry of a large number of elected representatives. The most famous
politician of Arab descent is Paulo Maluf, the former São Paulo mayor
and state governor, currently in prison under suspicion of massive
fraud during his time as mayor. Despite their political success,
Brazil´s Arabs have not matched their counterparts in places like
Argentina or Ecuador where presidents of Arab descent have assumed
office. Other prominent Brazilians of Arab descent are Adib Jatene,
health minister under Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and Paulo Skaf,
president of the São Paulo trade federation FIESP. I cannot think of
any footballer of Arab descent but have noticed that a surprisingly
large number of directors of the Corinthians football team have
Arab names.
Religious Freedom The discrimination the Jews suffered is a thing of
the past and the community is free to practice its religion and run
its own places of worship and schools. The Moslems do likewise and
have built the largest mosque in South America in the Foz de Iguacu
region where the frontiers of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet. São
Paulo has a hospital founded by the Arab community (Sirio-Libanese)
and another by the Jewish community (Einstein) although you don´t
have to be of either origin to be treated. There are a number of
clubs, including Hebraica for the Jews and Monte Libano and Homs
for the Arabs. The Jews have their own cemetery in Morumbi. There
are dozens of Arab restaurants in the city and snacks like kibes and
esfihas are eaten by everyone. The Brazilians have even taken Arab
bread and turned it into a sandwich know locally as a beiruti after
the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
This ability to take a foreign ingredient and make it Brazilian is
one of Brazil´s strengths. In fact, I am being a bit inaccurate in
calling these people Arabs because I bet every single “Arab” born here
(and even some born abroad) would describe himself or herself as a
Brazilian. Few of them speak Arabic, as a visiting Lebanese president
learned to his annoyance a few years ago when he tried to give a speech
in Arabic and discovered that almost no-one could understand him.
Boy Meets Girl – Nacib and Gabriela The Arabs have mixed well and
are popular. A heartthrob charmer like Omar Sharif is more the
Brazilian idea of an Arab than a murdering terrorist like Osama bin
Laden. Remember the start of Jorge Amado´s wonderful novel “Gabriela
– Clove and Cinnamon”: “In that year of 1925, when the idyll of the
mulatto girl Gabriela and Nacib the Arab began, the rains continued
long beyond the proper and necessary season”. Amado gave the novel
an alternative title “A Brazilian from the Arabies” and described
it as the “Adventures and Misadventures of a Good Brazilian (Born
in Syria)”. The book describes the goings on in the town of Ilheus
in Bahia during the cacao boom when fortunes were won and lost
and murder and conspiracy were rampant. Nacib, a fat cafe owner,
hires Gabriela as a cook to cover in an emergency and her cooking
proves to be so good that clients start flocking in and his business
takes off. He falls in love with her and she treats him like a god,
calling him her “beautiful man”. She loves when he talks Arabic in
bed and gives her an Arabic name. The “idyll” of Nacib and Gabriela
is a delightful counterbalance to the conspiracy and calumny of the
rest of the book. (Incidentally, this gender reversal is interesting
because Portuguese travelers had always admired the beauty of Moorish
women and were attracted to them. Even today the word “morena”,
used to describe a woman with dark hair and eyes, has a more sensual
connotation than the dull English equivalent “brunette”.)
There is no hostility between the Jewish and Arab communities despite
the problems of the Middle East. I know people from both communities
and have never heard a disparaging remark from either side about the
other. Since most Arabs were Christians, it was easier to integrate
with the Catholic Brazilians than it was for orthodox Jews and the
more recently arrived Moslem Arabs. This intermarriage over a century
has led to many Paulistanos having an ethnic lineage which combines
Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Lebanese/Syrian blood. The more
liberal Jews have also intermarried with Christians but there are
several orthodox communities which dress in traditional style and
keep to themselves. On Friday evenings the streets of districts like
Higienopolis and Cerqueira Cesar are filled with groups of Jews heading
for the synagogues. In fact, I was driven to write this article as
I sat in a padaria one Friday evening watching these groups coming
and going.
Terrorist Threat Despite this lack of tension, São Paulo´s Jews are on
the alert. They recall the murderous attacks a decade ago on Jewish
targets in Buenos Aires which killed over 100 people. The authors of
these attacks have never been discovered although suspicion has fallen
on Iranian diplomats acting in tandem with members of the Argentinean
intelligence forces. Anti-Semitism has never been official policy
in modern times although the government of Getulio Vargas secretly
issued an instruction in 1937 preventing entry visas being issued
for Jews. After the Second World War, thousands of Nazis escaped to
Latin America and many of them settled in Argentina and Brazil. When
Israeli commandos kidnapped Adolf Eichmann in 1962 and took him to
Jerusalem, where he was executed, many Argentinean and Brazilian Jews
were afraid that it would lead to reprisals against them. Nowadays,
Moslem extremists rather than Nazis are the more likely threat these
days. Schools, synagogues, clubs and buildings housing wealthy
businessmen are heavily fortified with security guards, concrete
barriers and steel doors. One prominent family is reported to be
guarded round the clock by former members of the Israeli armed forces.
The Arab community is not under the same threat of attack although
there have been some bloody internal spillovers from the Lebanese
conflict. The administration of George W. Bush has claimed that
terrorists have sought refuge in the Foz de Iguacu area and accused
Arab businessmen there of raising funds for terrorist groups. There
may be some truth to this but so far no hard evidence has been
presented. Moslem groups in the Foz area say they have raised funds for
humanitarian purposes in to help Lebanese and Palestinian refugees. The
Jewish community, in turn, makes hefty donations to Israel. For the
moment, both communities seem prepared to maintain a low-profile
approach and keep the conflict far from Brazil.
Finally, it is worth mentioning another persecuted ethnic group which
fled the religious oppression of the Ottomans and has flourished here –
the Armenians. The massacres the Christian Armenian people suffered
at the hands of the Turks were truly horrific but, thankfully, some
of the survivors found safety and a better life in Brazil, a country
which always extends a welcome to foreigners.
Note: The main sources for this article were Historia do Brasil by
Jorge Caldeira, Historia Concisa do Brasil by Boris Fausto, Brasil
2005 – Almanaque Abril, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600-1800 by Charles
Boxer, Brasil A/Z -Larousse, Nossa Historia – October 2005 issue,
Gabriela Clove and Cinnamon. For anyone interested in the story of
the Armenians I recommend The Rage of the Vulture, a novel by Barry
Unsworth.
© John Fitzpatrick 2005
John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish writer and consultant with long
experience of Brazil. He is based in São Paulo and runs his own
company Celtic Comunicacões. He can be contacted at [email protected].
–Boundary_(ID_wNh4WQT8h/v7fkJ7q8TDcA)–

ARMENIAN-GREEK COOPERATION ENHANCED
A1+
| 14:22:50 | 10-10-2005 | Official |
Today the newly appointed Greek Ambassador extraordinary and
plenipotentiary to Armenia Mrs. Panayota Mavromikhali has handed her
credentials to the RA President Robert Kocharyan.
Congratulating the Ambassador on being appointed Robert Kocharyan
mentioned the importance of the development of the two-party relations
between the countries, as well as to the cooperation in the margins
of NATO and EU.

PRESENT MAYORS RE-ELECTED
A1+
| 14:14:23 | 10-10-2005 | Politics |
Main struggle was for the posts of aldermen
The elections of the Abovyan mayor were held peacefully and without
any violations, as the only candidate was the present mayor Karapet
Israyelyan.
As for the villages, there too the only candidates for the posts of
mayors were the present officials.
The main struggle in Abovyan was among the 39 candidates for the posts
of aldermen. Although there were no grave violations recorded by the
Central Electoral Committee, there were some slight violations.
13 578 of the 39 567 electors have participated in the elections. By
preliminary data, Karapet Israyelyan has been re-elected with 12
518 votes.
In Ptgni Araqel Virabyan has been elected with 587 votes, and in
Balahovit – Kamo Grigoryan with 1 467 votes.
In Verin Ptgni Gevorg Pogosyan has been elected with 406 votes,
in Arinj – Gagik Sargsyan with 2 844 votes, in Dzoraghbyur – Arayik
Muqayelyan with 1020 votes, and in Mayakovski – Vahagn Barsegyan with
all the 1050 votes.

BRONZE SCULPTURE INSTEAD OF COPPER
A1+
| 18:03:21 | 10-10-2005 | Culture |
Sculptor David Yerevantsi who has been living in France for the last
33 years opened his first work in Yerevan today. To be more exact,
he re-opened his work created 38 years ago. {BR}
In 1967 David Yerevantsi who was a student of the third year placed
his first sculpture in the crossroad of Nalbandyan and Toumanyan
streets, “The great Armenian composer Alexander Spendiarian lived in
this house”. The copper sculpture has been washed away by years, and
David Yerevantsi has decided to make a new one, this time of bronze,
at his own expense.
The works of David Yerevantsi can be found almost everywhere in the
world, “I visit many countries, and sometimes I get surprised at how
I find time to visit Yerevan. I love Yerevan as I was born here”,
the artist says.
David Yerevantsi will return to France in a week, and it is not known
when he will visit Yerevan again. But 250 of his 450 works will be
transported and shown in Yerevan on the initiative of the Kentron
community head.
As for today, artists, intellectuals, the Kentron community head,
as well as the Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan participated in the
ceremony. By the way, the head of the house-museum of Alexander
Spendiarian thanked the latter for visiting them for the first time.

STRASBOURG CALLS TO ADOPT THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS
A1+
| 15:47:27 | 10-10-2005 | Official |
Today in Strasbourg Diogo Freitas do Amaral, Minister for Foreign
Affairs of Portugal and Chairman of the Council of Europe Committee
of Ministers, made the following statement:
“After several months of intense debate, Armenia’s National Assembly
has just adopted a number of constitutional amendments, in line
with the country’s commitment undertaken when joining the Council of
Europe. The referendum to be held on 27 November on this reform will
be vital for Armenia. By turning out to vote during the referendum,
the people of Armenia will indeed be deciding on changes of fundamental
importance for their future.
The expertise of the constitutional amendments by the Council of
Europe’s Venice Commission has shown that the reform will allow the
alignment of the Constitution with European standards by enhancing the
independence of the judiciary, providing a more balanced distribution
of power between the executive and the legislative branches, as well
as promoting local democracy and freedom of the media.
I appeal to the sense of responsibility and concern for the common
good of Armenia’s political parties, beyond their differences, in
order to support this reform, which is essential to the country’s
future as a democracy. By participating in the referendum and showing
their attachment to the values of freedom and democracy, the people
of Armenia will show their desire to see Armenia fully assume its
part in the European construction.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ASKING FOR HELP
A1+
| 15:45:00 | 10-10-2005 | Social |
Resident of the North Avenue Vachagan Hakobyan has met lately the
Municipality Reconstruction department head Karen Davtyan on behalf
of the residents struggling for their rights.
According to Vachagan Hakobyan, Karen Davtyan said that nothing depends
on him and they can give only about 200 000 USD to the 33 residents.
Yesterday the North Avenue dwellers convened a meeting and decided
to reject that miserable sum. “We will fight till the end”, Vachagan
Hakobyan says.
By the way, the residents have sent an e-mail to the RF President
Vladimir Putin and to the Russian Mass Media. They have received no
answer so far.

WHO ARE THE JUDGES?
A1+
| 15:30:15 | 10-10-2005 | Politics |
Today the Judge’s Union said “Yes” unanimously (according to David
Avetisyan who presided over the session) to the Constitutional
reforms. Today there were 174 members of the Union in the Government
session hall in order to find out the attitude of the judicial branch
of power to the draft constitution.
According to the RA Justice Minister David Haroutyunyan, “It is
high time we revised our approach to the independence of judicial
power”. The Minister expressed disappointment that the draft fails
to refer to several extremely important issues. He did not mentioned
which one exactly he means, but mentioned his liking for another
clause of the draft – that of the sovereignty of the judicial power.
Ombudsman Larissa Alaverdyan mentioned that “It is not possible
to speak about the defense of human rights in Armenia as there
are problems with free and fair court processes”. Nevertheless,
according to her, “the work is mainly positive”. At the end of the
speech Mrs. Alaverdyan greeted the members of the Union as her future
colleagues.
According to the Head of the Court of Appeal Hovhannes Manoukyan,
the issue of constitutional reforms rose because of human rights. He
said that from the judicial point of view the draft constitution is
almost ideal.
And judge of the RA Economic Court Anatoly Matevosyan voiced hope that
the referendum “will be held free, fair and without forgeries”. “I
call everyone to say “Yes” to the draft and to participate actively
in the preaching”, he said.
By the way, today the judges and the members of the Union also
discussed the Judge manners code where there are such lines, “The
Judge has to take measures to enrich his knowledge”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SCIENTISTS COMPLAIN OF PRIVATIZATION
A1+
| 16:52:58 | 10-10-2005 | Social |
The work of the “General and Inorganic Chemistry Institute” has been
ceased for the last days. The problem is that the municipality has
sold the majority of the land belonging to the Institute. The Institute
staff tried to struggle against the unlawful act, but applying to the
three court instances was no use. Today the Institute staff intends
to organize a sit-down strike opposite the President’s residence.
The General and Inorganic Chemistry Institute had 5 hectares of
land which was a must for the Institute as s sanitary and security
zone. “In the Institute chemical experiments are realized”, said head
of the Institute Sevan Davtyan.
By this decision the Institute was factually deprived of the security
zone and hence of the possibility to realize secure experiments. “This
means the beginning of the end”, noted the head of the Institute
who is a doctor-professor of Chemical sciences. He realizes that if
they start to build luxury mansions in the security zone (some have
already been built), the Institute will be deprived of its building
in the closest future.
The Institute engages in the investigation of the lithosphere and
processes different technologies. Part of the work realized by
the Institute is used in the military field. Some of them are also
important for jeweler’s art which has been recognized as a prior
branch of economy by Robert Kocharyan.

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 10) 517 163
Fax: (374 10) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
October 10, 2005
His Holiness Karekin II Sends Condolences to Pakistan and India
On October 9, 2005, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians, sent letters of condolence to the leaders of
Pakistan and India following the great earthquake which struck the region of
Kashmir on Saturday.
Addressing his letters to President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh of India, the Pontiff of All Armenians expressed his
sorrow and pain for the tragic loss of life, countless casualties and
immense property damage inflicted on their countries.
In the letters, His Holiness extends the consolation and solidarity of the
Armenian Church and people, and expresses his sincere and heartfelt wish
that the tragedy-afflicted peoples of Pakistan and India quickly triumph
over the tribulations and difficulties they are facing. His Holiness also
appeals for Divine solace to comfort the hearts of all those who have
suffered devastating losses from this tragedy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Section WORLD A13
Banning things will not change anything¹
Charged with insulting Turkish identity and army, controversial author faces
jail time
By LEVON SEVUNTS, Montreal
When Dora Sakayan first published her grandfather¹s diary in Montreal, she
had no inkling that 10 years later it could land someone a half a world away
in court, facing as much as two years in jail.
But then, she never dreamed that her grandfather¹s diary, an eyewitness
account of the events in which several members of his family perished, along
with 30,000 Greeks and Armenians at the hands of Turkish nationalist forces
in Izmir in 1922, would ever be published in Turkey.
Ragip Zarakolu, a prominent activist and human-rights activist. dared to
translate and publish Mrs. Sakayan¹s book, An Armenian Doctor in Turkey.
Garabed Hatcherian: My Smyrna Ordeal of 1922. Now, he is charged with
insulting the armed forces, Turkish identity and the memory of Kemal
Ataturk, the iconic founder of the Turkish republic.
³I was worried and upset that he is suffering because of me, because of
my book,² Mrs. Sakayan said during an interview over a cup of Turkish coffee
and homemade sweets in her downtown apartment. ³But he calmed me down,
saying that he sees this as his calling, to use the courthouse as a platform
to speak out on human rights, the rights of Turkey¹s ethnic minorities and
as an opportunity to fight historical revisionism.²
Mr. Zarakolu has a track record of defying Turkish authorities. He was
imprisoned for three years for his activism in 1971 by the military junta.
In 1977, Mr. Zarakolu and his now-deceased wife Ayse Nur founded the Belge
(The Document) Publishing House, which has been a target for Turkish
censorship laws ever since. The couple was imprisoned, their books were
impounded and they were forced to pay heavy fines. In 1995, their offices
were firebombed by a right-wing group.
Mr. Zarakolu¹s legal troubles began because Turkey officially denies
that the massacres and deportations of the Armenian population of Ottoman
Turkey during the First World War constituted genocide. That puts Turkey at
odds with the majority of genocide scholars, as well as more than 20
parliaments, including Canada¹s. The Armenian question has been a taboo
protected by draconian censorship laws in Turkey.
What irked Turkish authorities most about her book is that it deals with
massacres perpetrated by some of the founders of the modern Turkish
republic, not by young Turks, which was the case between 1915 and 1918, Mrs.
Sakayan said.
In his defence statement during the first court hearing in the case on
Sept. 21, Mr. Zarakolu said Turkey owed an apology to Mrs. Sakayan¹s
grandfather, a Turkish citizen and a decorated military doctor, who served
his country despite the Armenian massacres.
³Publishing this book can be counted as part of that apology.² Mr.
Zarakolu told the court. ³The accusations that the book insults the Turkish
national character or the Turkish army are totally unfair. All these events
really happened. Banning things will not change anything.²
Mr. Zarakolu is also facing two different criminal proceedings related
to another book on the Armenian genocide that he published and a critical
magazine article he wrote about Turkish policy toward Iraqi Kurds.
The trial for the magazine article is set for Oct. 11, and he is due to
return to court on Nov. 22 for the hearings on Mrs. Sakayan¹s book.
The case of Mr. Zarakolu comes at an embarrassing moment for Turkish
authorities as they prepare to start negotiations for eventual membership in
the European Union. Abolishing their censorship laws is one of the
preconditons for Turkey joining the EU.
Yet despite some changes to the penal code, about 60 Turkish writers and
publishers are facing trials in Turkey, said Kjell Olaf Jensen, president of
the Norwegian PEN Centre, which has been closely monitorng the trials.
Among them is the world-famous Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk. Mr. Pamuk
will be brought before an Istanbul court on Dec. 16, 2005. He faces as many
as three years of prison for a comment he published in a Swiss newspaper
earlier this year, in which he criticised the Turkish positon on the
Armenian genocide and the Kurdish issue.
³I find the whole thing completely absurd,² Mr. jensen said. ³Are these
the same authorities who want Turkey to become member of the EU?²
Special to the Globe and Mail
Photo: Dora Sakayan photoghraphed in her Montreal apartment