Brief history of brazilian jews

A Brief History of the Jews of Brazil The history of Jews in Brazil is a unique case, because we do not know of many other countries in which they have been significantly present in the very first movements of that nation’s history, continuously participating in its economic and social development. In fact, since the “discovery“ of Brazil to the present time, the Jews, almost without interval, openly or disguised, have been integrated into the processes of formation of Brazilian nationality. My aim in this paper is to provide a summary of Jewish history in Brazil by highlighting four major historical periods: The First Portuguese Period (1500-1630); The Dutch Period (1630 -1654); The Second Portuguese Period (1654-1822); and The Cosmopolitan Period (1822-1966).
The First Portuguese Period (1500-1630) When Portugal was at the height of its expansion in the world, in 1500, Brazil was “discovered” by the kingdom. It was then simply military glory, coupled with the desire to enlarge the Catholic faith, that compelled the Portuguese to their grand maritime expeditions (Grinberg 15). But just these reasons alone would not have sufficed to promote the extraordinary expansion of Portugal. The great cycle of the Portuguese conquests would not have been achieved without the long period of scientific discoveries and improvements that preceded it, in which the Iberian Jews played such a key role. As a prime example of this involvement, in Henry the Navigator’s "Nautical School of Sagres", the first Portuguese academy of navigation (founded in 1412), was employed one of the most famous cartographers of the fifteenth century, the Jewish Yehuda Cresques, whose main task was to teach Portuguese pilots the basics of navigation well as the production and handling of nautical instruments (Serebrenick and Lipiner 7). The Jewish contribution to the discovery of new routes and new lands to the Portuguese crown was not limited only to the scientific field, however, but also