March 24, 2025

In my last blog I shared the feeling of comfort that Chongae and I feel when we feel connected to the faith community. I am not naive to believe that there have not been times when people of faith have been less than kind to one another. There have been blatant acts of prejudice shown toward religious groups. We encountered a history of such prejudice in our visit to Recife, Brazil.

Recife was settled by the Portuguese in the 1500’s but the Dutch took over in the 1600’s. The port flooded often, and Dutch engineers saw an opportunity in the mangroves and cut canals and built a Dutch style city that made the port area more stable and less prone to flooding. Some of the best remaining colonial buildings, and some of the finest architecture in Recife are along those canals. Some of the houses are the narrow type of row houses that you see in Amsterdam. Recife has been referred to as the Amsterdam of Brazil.

I was surprised to learn that the oldest synagogue in the Americas, the “Sinagoga Kahal Zur Israel”, was founded in Recife. I was interested to find out not only how a Jewish Synagogue, but the oldest in the Americas came to be started in Brazil.

From 1630 onward, the Dutch Republic conquered almost half of Brazil’s settled European area at the time, with its capital in Recife. The Dutch West India Company set up its headquarters in Recife. The governor, John Maurice, invited businessmen, scientists and educated professionals to the colony to help promote Brazil and increase immigration. Wanting to recruit entrepreneurs the Dutch issued a declaration of religious tolerance directed specifically to Jews.

As a result, members of the Sephardic Jewish Community who had taken refuge in Amsterdam after they were expelled from Portugal petitioned to settle in the Dutch colony of Recife and that petition was granted and the first synagogue in the Americas was founded.

But the resettlement caused some concern for the new Jewish citizens of Dutch Brazil. They sought the counsel of the chief rabbi for advice on how to adjust their calendar of prayer for the reversed seasons South of the Equator. Should they pray for rain during the months of Tishri and Nissan as other Jews did throughout the world or should they adopt their prayers to the seasons of the year in Brazil?

However, the tide turned against the Dutch when the Portuguese won a significant victory at the Second Battle of Guarapes in 1649. On January 26, 1654, the Dutch surrendered but only as a provisional pact. By May 1654, the Dutch Republic demanded that New Holland be given back. On August 6, 1661, New Holland was formally given to the Dutch through the Treaty of the Hague.

It was during the Portuguese occupation that the Jewish community was blatantly discriminated against. The street on which the synagogue was founded was renamed “Bom Jesus” (translation “Good Jesus”) a deliberate insult to the Jewish community. The Portuguese started to persecute the Jews if they would not convert to Catholicism. The Jewish congregation was forced to leave Recife and seek out refuge in other Dutch communities, most notably New Amsterdam, the current New York City. The Congregation Shearith Israel is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 2 West 70th Street at Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Established in 1654 in New Amsterdam by Jews who arrived from Dutch Brazil, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. This was the beginning of New York’s Jewish community.

The conflict did not end there, however. When the Dutch regained control of Brazil they sought out revenge against the Portuguese Catholics. They ripped out the baroque fittings of the Catholic churches to make fit the more austere Calvinist model. When the Portugueses gained control, they restored the baroque fittings. This part of history is an embarrassment to people of faith but only demonstrate that revenge is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemy.

Thanks for traveling with us.