Amazonian Jews
| File:Tarapotojews.jpg | |
| 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 | |
| Part of a series on |
| Jews and Judaism |
|---|
Amazonian Jews (Hebrew: יהודים אמזונאס, "Yehudim Amazonas"; Spanish: Judíos Amazónicos; Portuguese: Judeus Amazônicos) are the communities of mostly Moroccan Jewish descendants found in Amazon basin cities and river villages of Brazil and Peru, including Belém, Santarém, Manaus, Iquitos, Tarapoto and others.
Origins
Their origins trace to Moroccan Jewish traders and tappers who arrived in the Brazilian, and later Peruvian, Amazon basin during the rubber boom of the 1880s. They ventured as far as Iquitos.
Since their Jewish descent was patrilineal - Jewish traders had all been males who coupled up with local (mestizo or Amerindian) females - their Jewishness is not recognised according to halakha, which recognises only matrilineal descent.
Ashkenazi suspicion and discrimination
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 (under 3,000) who are integrated into Lima's elite white European minority. Thanks to efforts made by Israeli outreach programmes, some have formally returned to Judaism, made aliyah and now live in Israel.
Amazonian Jewish communities
Iquitos Jews
Tarapoto Jews
Belém and Manaus Jews
 |
The surnames found in Belém and Manaus of jews from morrocan of Spanish origin like: Albaz, Almescany, Assayag, Benesby,Benchimol, Benayon, Bemerguy, Bendayan, Benguigui, Bentes, Benzecry, Elmescany, Foinquinos, Hamú, Israel, Laredo, Levy, Ohana, Ovadia, Sabbá, Salém, Salgado, Safdié, Sefdié, Serruya, Soares, Tobelem, Zagury. We have some great examples of their success like Isaac Benayon Sabbá and Samuel Benchimol. The Saga of the Jews in the Amazon is portrait in the documentary Eretz Amazonia done by David Salgado, based on Samuel Benchimol book Eretz Amazonia the saga of Jews in amazon. They migrated from Morocco to the Amazon during the rubber boom. They used their traditional languages: Ladino, Hebrew and Haketia .