Brazilian Students Experience Jewish History

A group of 120 Jewish students from Brazil wrapped up their international Jewish history tour, poring over a slideshow of their journey amidst clapping and cheers at the Chabad-Lubavitch center in Midtown Manhattan. After travelling through Spain, Portugal, Morocco, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey over the course of three weeks, they spent last weekend in New York, visiting Jewish institutions in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn and seeking inspiration and blessings at the Cambria Heights resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

The trip was the culmination of a Judaism course that the 18- to 25-year olds volunteered for, spending two hours a week for 10 months at their hometown Chabad Houses learning about Jewish law, traditions, and history. Last year, a similar tour took 100 participants through Eastern Europe.

While many of the young adults are from metropolitan areas with sizable Jewish communities, some also hail from towns where there are only two or three Jewish families.

“One of the things we do is to strengthen their Jewish identity. We want to form leaders,” said Rabbi Dovid Weitman, Foundations Project organizer and director of Keren Nehor Menachem, which underwrote the costs of the trip.

Debora Bonfá, 21, of Recife, returned for her second trip with the group. This one held special interest for her because her great, great-grandparents came from Greece and Turkey. She said she was again struck by the way every part of the world has its own Jewish history, and inspired by the fact that while her town sometimes struggles to make a suitable quorum for public prayer, Jewish communities around the world are going strong.

“In Morocco, in Turkey, there are synagogues and a strong and active community,” she said. “It’s just incredible, this will that Jews have to be together forever, to be together to keep with the tradition.”

Edima Kittman, 20, who lives 24 hours by bus from S. Paulo, found out about the trip from her cousins. Her state doesn’t have a synagogue, and hers is believed to be the only Jewish family in the area. Kittman, who like her neighbors attended a non-Jewish school, said she valued the family feel of the trip, and also the friends she made. Additionally, learning about Jewish history helped her realize how important it is to her to preserve and pass on the Jewish tradition.

She wanted to be part of the program so much that she offered to travel three hours by bus to attend the classes. In the end, she was exempted from attending in person, and learned online.

“We are a big family,” she said she learned. “To G-d, we are all special, each one.”

Andre Hirshfeld, 25, of S. Paulo, said he was happy to have learned so much more about his roots. It’s something he can take with him when he returns to work.

“I work with so many non-Jews and they are curious, they want to know how it works,” he said. “It’s important that I know who the Rambam and other leaders were, because it’s part of us and something that defines us.”

Coming to New York, he said he was especially impressed by Brooklyn and the way that traditional Jewish culture is the norm in some neighborhoods.

“People walk with their hats,” he said of Crown Heights. “On the Sabbath, it was all silent. Everything stopped, all the businesses.”

As far as lifelong Jewish impact is concerned, participants pointed to Arthur Zveibil Fisman, 25, and Thalita Wassermann, 21. Fisman was planning on proposing to his girlfriend of four years in New York, but was so moved by the synagogue of Casale Monferrato in Italy that he popped the question right there.

“I was in love with it. She was too, so I thought it was the right moment to do it. It just felt like it,” he said, “something about the synagogue and the history of the place.”