Ties Established by Jewish Immigration

The Welcome of Jews by Institutions in Brazil

Passport (1926/1926)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Welcoming the immigrants, the new members of the community

The number of Jewish immigrants arriving in São Paulo began to rise significantly around the time of the First World War. Approximatelyforty thousand immigrants entered the city between the 1910s and the first half of the 1930s. In order to aid and support each and every individual arriving in their multiple needs, the organizations Ezra and Caria were founded.

IlustrationJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Illustrative diagram showing the activities developed at CIP, with emphasis on Social Assistance and Overseas Assistance activities. CIP continued the activities of the Comissão de Assistência aos Refugiados Israelitas da Alemanha (Commission for Assistance to Israeli Refugees from Germany - Caria), founded in 1933, which financially supported more than 300 refugee families, in cooperation with various international Jewish entities, such as Joint, Hias and JCA-Hicem.

Special edition of Crônica Israelita (1946/1946)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Special edition of Crônica Israelita (Israeli Chronicle), in December 1946, commemorative of the 10 years of the Congregação Israelita Paulista (Jewish Congregation of São Paulo - CIP). Created in 1936, CIP took over the assistance activities carried out by Caria.

Classroom at CIPJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Classroom at CIP with Rabbi Fritz Pinkuss teaching Hebrew, with a portrait of President Getulio Vargas on the back wall. CIP became the center of the community of Jewish-German immigrants who fled Nazism, developing a series of educational and assistance activities.

Passport (1910/1910)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Passport (1910/1910)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Immigrant passport expedited in the  1910s.

Passport (1920/1920)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Immigrant passport expedited in the 1920s.

PassportJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Passport, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
,
Passport, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
Show lessRead more

German passports with “J” stamps, used by the Nazis to identify and mark Jews, as well as the names “Israel” and “Sara” compulsorily added to their names. With the rise of Nazism to power, hundreds of German Jewish immigrants and refugees arrived in Brazil.

Inauguration of the headquarters of the Sociedade Beneficente Ezra (1963/1963)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Inauguration of the headquarters of the Sociedade Beneficente Ezra (Ezra Beneficent Society), at Rua Guarani in the Bom Retiro neighborhood, with the presence of Leon Feffer, state deputy Jacob Salvador Zveibil, Maurício Flank, Salomão Gurman, Josef Zilberberg, Adolpho Beresin (with his daughter) and Felipe Kauffman, 1963.

“When I first arrived, my husband did not have a house for us to live and, as immigration numbers were high, Ezra rented a very large house where there was a hall area for storing luggage, a manager’s office and a meeting room, and a number of ladies 3 from the Jewish community who helped out. When the immigrants first arrived, Ezra provided financial support until they found work." 

- Mery Freidenson

book book (1930/1930)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Ezra's Registration book of the Letters of Calling, which helped in the process of obtaining the document required by the Brazilian government to receive the immigrants, 1930s; in many cases, men immigrated first and called their wives and children to come once they had managed to achieve minimum living conditions in Brazil. 

Ezra directors (1953/1955)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Ezra directors, with Benjamin Kulikovsky (wearing a bow-tie) sitting in the center.

Luiza Lorch (1930/1930)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Luiza Lorch was born in São Paulo, daughter of Berta and Maurício Klabin, and spent her childhood and youth between Brazil and Europe. Luiza was directly involved in community and philanthropic activities, having been president of Gota de Leite (Drop of Milk) at B’nei B’rith and having been on the board of directors of the Lar das Crianças Israelita(s) da Sociedade das Damas Israelitas (Jewish Children's Home of the Jewish Ladies’ Society). 

Luiz LorchJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Luiz Lorch was born in Germany in 1894, where he studied medicine. He married Luiza Klabin in 1924 and, in 1928, immigrated to Brazil. As from 1933, with the arrival of Nazism to power, many Jewish immigrants from Germany began to arrive in Brazil and the couple Luiz and Luiza Lorch became the center of German-Jewish life in the city and the heart of an informal network of support for immigrants

Children (1940/1940)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Caring for the children and planting the future

Child care ensured the health and well-being of children whose families did not have the material conditions or structure to do so. The Jewish community maintained Gota de Leite, the Children's Home of the Ladies and the CIP Children's Home in the 1930s.

Theatrical presentation (1941/1941)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Boys and girls from CIP's Lar das Crianças in a theatrical presentation of the play “Noah’s Ark” in the entity's backyard, 1941.

Ilustration (1947/1947)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Drawing representing some of the children sheltered and supported by the Lar da Crianças, a group made up of those who had no family or whose families, for various reasons, could not provide for them: paternal or maternal orphans, or children with disabled parents, children of recently-arrived immigrants and of “couples engaged in the struggle for daily bread”, 1947. 

special edition of the Crônica Israelita (1946/1946)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

“For the community, it is the child itself that represents an inestimable value, regardless of the social strata in which he was born or the situation his parents currently face”.  Alfredo Hisrschberg, 1946 

Children (1940/1940)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Children’s rest hour at the Lar das Crianças das Damas (Ladies’ Children’s Home), which started to be run by Ofidas in 1940.

MeetingJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Meeting of the volunteers and collaborators of CIP’s Lar das Crianças.

Children, 1946/1946, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
,
Children, 1946/1946, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
Show lessRead more

Children cared for by CIP’s Lar das Crianças in everyday activities, 1946.

Façade of the Lar da Criança Israelita (1939/1939)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Façade of the Lar da Criança Israelita (Jewish Children’s Home), on Rua Jorge Velho, in the Bom Retiro neighborhood, inaugurated in 1939.

Women immigrants (1910/1910)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Women as the protagonists

Immigrant women organized themselves in various assistance entities from the 1910s onwards, carrying out work that allowed them to receive immigrants and structure the community in general, in particular, welcoming women and children.

Women (1937/1937)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

In various parts of the country, women organized themselves into childcare organizations, such as the Sociedade de Proteção à Infância Israelita Desamparada, (Society for the Protection of Jewish Unsupported Children), founded in 1937

Minutes book, 1915/1915, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
,
Bertha Klabin’s signature, 1930/1930, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
Show lessRead more

Minutes book of the Sociedade Beneficente das Damas Israelitas (Jewish Ladies’ Beneficent Society) founded in 1915.  / Bertha Klabin’s signature in the meeting minutes notebook of the Sociedade das Damas Israelitas as the society’s president, 1930.

StampJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Commemorative stamp of the 60 years of the Organização Feminina Israelita de Assistência Social (Jewish Women Organization for Social Service – Ofidas).

Social services assistant (1959/1959)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Social services assistant allocated at the Ofidas headquarters in front of the photographs of the founders of the Sociedade das Damas Israelitas, Olga Tabacow, Bertha Klabin and Olga Nebel, 1959.

Children (1960/1960)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Children cared for by Ofidas, 1960s.

Photo credits: Jacques. Photo probably taken between 1940 and 1950. OFIDAS (Israeli Feminine Organization for Social Service). (1940-1950)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Elisa Kaufman, on the right holding a pencil, with other Ofidas’ workers and volunteers, 1960.

Joint campaign (1947/1947)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

international organizations

The gigantic effort that combined emigration and the search for destinations for the immigrants involved negotiating with governments from different countries, providing documentation and tickets, safe travel and contacts at the places where they were to arrive.

MapJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Map of the Philippson colony, founded by the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) in Rio Grande do Sul.

Four Brothers ColonyJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

In the Colônia de Quatro Irmãos (Four Brothers Colony), founded by JCA in Rio Grande do Sul, the school was a central institution and JCA itself was responsible for bringing teachers of Jewish culture.

SettlersJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Settlers of the Colônia de Quatro Irmãos, one of the colonies formed by JCA in Rio Grande do Sul.

Publication of Joint’s Auxiliary Publication of Joint’s Auxiliary, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
,
Publication of Joint’s Auxiliary Publication of Joint’s Auxiliary, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
Show lessRead more

Publication of Joint’s Auxiliary Committee launches campaigns to raise funds for aid entities – orphanages, schools, children's homes and institutes – in several countries, posing the dramatic question “How much is a child's life worth?”

Report on the activities of assistance provided by Joint Report on the activities of assistance provided by Joint, 1941/1942, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
,
Report on the activities of assistance provided by Joint Report on the activities of assistance provided by Joint, 1941/1942, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
Show lessRead more

  Report on the activities of assistance provided by Joint and an illustrative diagram of the aid given in 1941.

Campaign (1946/1946)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Under the motto “Salvemos os sobreviventes” (“Let’s save the survivors”), the Joint Auxiliary Committee launches the 1946 campaign to “save the victims who escaped the Nazi rage”.

Joint campaign (1947/1947)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

“São os filhos de nosso povo” (“They are the children of our people”) was the motto of the Joint campaign to assist 150 thousand children, many of them orphans, living in a vulnerable situation in Europe, 1947.

Ezra SanatoriumJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

taking care of health

The Jewish community looked after the health of immigrants and its members by way of medical appointments, by providing medication, outpatient procedures as well as support for surgeries and hospitalizations. The main organizations that provided healthcare aid were the Policlínica Linath Hatzedek and the Sanatório de Tuberculosos da Ezra (Ezra Tuberculosis Sanatorium), 

Minutes book (1935/1935)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Opening of the meeting minutes book of the board of the Sociedade Beneficente Linath Hatzedek (Linath Hatzedek Beneficent Society), written in Yiddish.

Minutes of the first meeting of the founders of the Sociedade Beneficente Linath Hatzedek (1929/1929)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Minutes of the first meeting of the founders of the Sociedade Beneficente Linath Hatzedek, in which they explain the need to create an entity to help the sick in the “Israeli Colony”, specifying as objectives the loan of necessary objects and “watching over the sick confrere”, 1929.

Directors (1929/1929)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Board of Directors of the Sociedade Beneficente Linath Hatzedek, founded in 1929.

Ezra SanatoriumJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Entrance gate to the Ezra Sanatorium in São José dos Campos.

EmployeesJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Employees who attended to patients with tuberculosis, a highly prevalent and lethal disease, without effective drug treatment until the 1940s.

Employee (1935/1955)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Employee in the laboratory and the preparation of medication in the Ezra Sanatorium.

First X-ray machine (1939/1939)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

First X-ray machine, essential in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, installed at the Ezra Sanatorium in 1939.

Corridor of the pavilion at the Ezra SanatoriumJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Corridor of the pavilion at the Ezra Sanatorium with chairs for sunbathing and resting, part of the treatment against tuberculosis.

Book of gold Book of gold, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
,
Book of gold Book of gold, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
Show lessRead more

Ezra received patients from Jewish communities across the country, as well as collecting donations, registered in “Books of gold”, in dozens of subcommittees spread throughout Brazil.

Group of studentsJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Promoting Education


At school, immigrant children found a favourable environment for their insertion into the country, spent time with other children and gained autonomy to find their own paths in society, without being under the tutelage of adults.

Students (1933/1933)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Group of students from Gymnasio Hebraico-Brasileiro Renascença (Renaissance Hebrew-Brazilian Preparatory High School) visiting the Monument tothe Independence, in the square of the Ipiranga Museum, 1933.

Students and teachersJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Students and teachers from the Ginásio Hatchia para meninos e meninas (Hatchia Preparatory High School for boys and girls”), according to a plaque in Hebrew in the center of the photo, with Brazilian and Zionist symbols.

School resentation of students (1938/1938)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

School presentation of the students from the Escola Israelita-Brasileira Luiz Fleitlich (Luiz Fleitlich Hebrew-Brazilian School) in the celebratory Simchat Torá party, 1938.

School presentation of the students from the Escola Luiz Fleitlich, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
,
School presentation of the students from the Escola Luiz Fleitlich, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
Show lessRead more

School presentation of the students from the Escola Luiz Fleitlich in the Brás neighborhood.

Teacher and children (1920/1930)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Teacher and children at a school located on Rua Três Rios, in the Bom Retiro neighborhood, in the 1920s and 1930s.

Elementary boys’ classJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Elementary boys’ class at the Escola Talmud Torá (Talmud Torah School)

Cambuci’s Hebrew SchoolJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Escola Israelita do Cambuci (Cambuci’s Hebrew School), a neighborhood where there was a nucleus of the Jewish community.

David VaieJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Work and Opportunities

Finding work was an essential concern of the immigrants. The aid organizations provided wholehearted support in this process, seeing that work would ensure the livelihood and the autonomy of the newcomers, allowing the same entities to care for others who continued to arrived.

Directors and employeesJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Directors and employees in front of the headquarters of Cooperativa de Crédito do Bom Retiro.

“I believe that the Cooperativa’s greatest merit was that it was a bank that served the community, wherein people with very few resources who had a guarantor (who at times wasn’t very rich either) could take out a loan to get on with their lives."

- Schmuel Lev

Clients being servedJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Clients being served at the Cooperativa de Crédito.

Piggy bank campaign, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
,
Piggy bank campaign, From the collection of: Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo
Show lessRead more

Cooperativa de Crédito Popular’s (Bom Retiro’s Popular Credit Cooperative’s) piggy bank campaign with the motto “Your daughter deserves a promising future”.

Vocational sewing classJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Vocational sewing class for girls offered by Ofidas.

Facade of the ORT’s vocational schoolJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Facade of the ORT’s vocational school, a community initiative that offered vocational and technical courses to “educate their children for a hard life that still awaits us in the future, and lay the foundation for the youth to be able to earn their living with dignity”.

Asylo dos Velhos (1941/1941)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Commitment to the elderly

The support to senior immigrants soon became a need within the Jewish community, particularly in light of the fact that many men and women were no longer young upon arriving in the country, they had lost their families in the war and were now alone.

Asylo dos VelhosJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Many of the elderly people cared for had specific needs and physical limitations that required special care. The José Teperman Pavilion, on the ground floor, facilitated access for wheelchair users.

Medical CenterJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Doctors and a nurse guaranteed the care of a sick patient at the Lar dos Velhos (Senior Care Home).

Lar dos VelhosJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

The Lar dos Velhos had an Infirmary and specialized staff.

RefectoryJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Refectory of the Lar dos Velhos.

Facade of de old building of the Asylo dos Velhos (1941/1941)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Facade of the old building of the Asylo dos Velhos on Rua Dr. Pinto Ferraz, in the Vila Mariana neighborhood, inaugurated in 1941.

Lar dos VelhosJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Entrance to one of the pavilions, from the Home’s central garden.

Group of residentsJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Group of residents of the Lar dos Velhos playing cards. Dignity and community life for those most in need.

Teperman Family (1940/1940)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

The Teperman Family at a ceremony in the synagogue at the Lar dos Velhos in the 1940s.

Synagogue of the Lar dos VelhosJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Aron Hakodesh and Bimá form the synagogue of the Lar dos Velhos.

Compaign Unida (1947/1947)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Post-World War II

After World War II and the Holocaust, refugees and immigrants arrived in Brazil and in São Paulo and, in addition to the entities that were already established, new organizations emerged to provide support to the newcomers.

Crônica Israelita (1944-10-05)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

On October 5, 1944, the front page of the newspaper Crônica Israelita highlighted the first lists of survivors and actions to aid European Jews. In the post-war period, the Jewish community provided substantial help to immigrants and Jews from overseas.

Compaign Unida (1947/1947)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

The 1947 Unida (United) Campaign to promote the settling of the new immigrants and local social services.

Centro Israelita de Assistência ao Menor (1959/1959)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

The Centro Israelita de Assistência ao Menor (Jewish Center for Assistance to Minors – Ciam), created in 1959 by parents, organizations and professionals from the Jewish community, provided assistance to “exceptional children”, term used during that period.

promotional leafletJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

Ciam’s promotional leaflet, an entity created to serve “exceptional children”, as was said at the time, “a big problem that few people know about and that very few people try to understand”.

Publication (1956/1956)Jewish Museum of Sao Paulo

A publication by the Liga Feminina Israelita do Brasil (Jewish Women’s League of Brazil) which, in 1956, began running the Oficina Abrigada de Trabalho (Sheltered Workshop) created by Hias.

Oficinas Abrigadas de TrabalhoJewish Museum of Sao Paulo

In the post-war period, Oficinas Abrigadas de Trabalho were created to attend to people with difficulties in entering the labor market, such as the one founded by Hias and the one that operated within the Lar dos Velhos.

Credits: Story

CEO 
 Felipe Arruda

DIRECTOR OF COLLECTIONS AND MEMORY
Roberta Sundfeld

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATION
Marilia Neustein

DIRECTOR OF CURATOR AND PARTICIPATION 
Ilana Feldman
Exposição Laços da Imigração: Acolhimento dos judeus pelas instituições no Brasil


COORDINATION

PROJECT MANAGER OF THE CENTRO MEMÓRIA OF  MUSEU JUDAICO OF SÃO PAULO

Linda Derviche Blaj



CURATOR
Roney Cytrynowicz

HISTORICAL AND ICONOGRAPHIC RESEARCH


Narrative One - History Projects and Research 
Monica Musatti Cytrynowicz


GRAPHIC PROJECT
Zoldesign


TEAM OF THE CENTRO MEMÓRIA OF  MUSEU JUDAICO OF SÃO PAULO
Maria Theodora Falcão Barbosa (Coordenadora de acervo)
Leonardo Nogueira Vitulli (Arquivista)
José Messias Ribeiro Santos (Zelador)
Jemima Novaes Siqueira (Atendimento)

PROGRAMMING ON Google Arts & Culture
Erika Costa


TEXT REVIEW
Mariangela Paganini


IMAGE SCAN
Julia Thompson

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

Interested in History?

Get updates with your personalized Culture Weekly

You are all set!

Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.

Home
Discover
Play
Nearby
Favorites