Bate-Papo Lecture Series: The Jews of Rio de Janeiro

A public lecture by Flavio Limoncic, associate professor of history at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) and a 2011-12 visiting professor at the University of Michigan.

Throughout the twentieth century, Brazil was transformed from an agro-exporting nation into a complex urban-industrial society. The close to twenty thousand Jews who immigrated to Rio de Janeiro in the first few decades of the century, and their descendants, benefitted significantly from this process. While the first generation of immigrants participated in petty commerce, their children gained university educations and ascended to the new professional middle classes. This bate-papo focuses on the relationship between Jews in Rio de Janeiro and Brazilian modernization and on the dynamic relationship between these Jews and the city where they lived.

The "Bate Papo" provides informal gatherings of students, scholars, and invited guests to discuss issues of broad contemporary interest. Conversations are primarily in Portuguese, but accessible to beginning Portuguese students.