Amazonian Jews
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Unknown | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Brazil | 250,000 |
 Peru | Unknown |
 Israel | Unknown |
| Languages | |
|
Modern: Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Peru), Hebrew (Israel) Liturgical: Sephardic Hebrew | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
|
•Jews Moroccan Jews, Sephardi Jews, Berber Jews, Other Jewish groups •Brazilians and Peruvians mestizos, caboclos, others | |
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Amazonian Jews (Hebrew: יהודי אמזונאס, "Yehudey Amazonas"; Spanish: Judíos Amazónicos; Portuguese: Judeus Amazônicos) is the name for people of Jewish Moroccan descent who live in the Amazon basin cities and river villages of Brazil and Peru, including Belém, Santarém, Alenquer, Óbidos, Manaus, Iquitos, Tarapoto, and others.
Origins
Their origins trace to Moroccan Jewish traders and trappers who arrived in the Brazilian, and later Peruvian, Amazon basin during the rubber boom of the nineteenth century. They spoke Ladino, Hebrew, and Haketia.
The earliest Moroccans Jews came in 1810 from Fez, Tanger, Tetuan, Casablanca, Salé, Rabat, and Marrakesh. In 1824 the first synagogue, Essel Avraham, was organized in Belém. The peak of the rubber boom between 1880 and 1910 coincided with height of Jewish immigration and communities sprung up along the Amazon River, in Santarém, Manaus, and ventured as far as Iquitos. Many families lived in isolated ribeirinhos settlements. Rabino Shalom Imanu El-Muyal, a rabbi, was considered a holy man and admired even by non-Jews, as a healer and folk saint, and he is referred as "santo Moisézinho" (Saint Little Moses).[1]
Relationship with other Jewish communities
For the Peruvian communities, an enduring casta system stemming from the colonial period has resulted in virtually no interaction between these Jewish descendants and the small mostly European Ashkenazi population concentrated in Lima. Efforts made by Israeli outreach programmes have allowed some Amazonian Jews to make aliyah and live in Israel.
Documentaries
The documentary, Eretz Amazonia (by David Salgado), is based on the Samuel Benchimol book "Eretz Amazonia; The Saga of Jews in the Amazon". Another documentary by Stephen Nugent and Renato Athias "Where is The Rabbi" shows the life of Jews in Amazon.
See also
- Moroccan Jews
- Sephardim
- B'nai Moshe