In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

1 Departures I have often been met with surprise or even utter astonishment upon telling people that I conduct research on Jews in Brazil. Though hardly a small population when compared with the tiny Jewish communities that are scattered about the globe, it seems as if the idea of Jews in Brazil—a country known for deeply held and celebratory Catholicism, for indigenous cultural and environmental resistance, for Afro-Brazilian religion and art, for entrenched poverty—contradicts these more familiar ways of knowing this continent-sized nation. While there are certainly contradictions inherent in being Jewish and Brazilian, I have found that Jewish Brazilians provide an intriguing window onto Brazil, a way of understanding the center from the margins, a way of examining the complex intersection between nation, race, ethnicity, and class. Considering the experiences of Jews in Brazil is also, of course, a fascinating way of thinking about the cultural construction of Jewishness, of the practices and meaning associated with being Jewish as it is lived and understood in a particular historical and cultural context, in this case, the metropolis of São Paulo at the turn of the twenty-first century. 2 ◆ Kosher Feijoada In this book, I explore this set of issues from several perspectives: the intersecting histories of nation, city, and multiple places of origin; the multicultural constitution of the Jewish community; the way in which socioeconomic class is central to ethnic practices and identity; the economic constraints on religious and ethnic expression; the ways in which Brazilian ideology has created a particularly welcoming space for Jews and the ways in which Jews have created a community that reflects that ideology; the overlapping concerns with security that permit the Jewish community to build on existing practices in São Paulo to protect themselves against external sources of violence; the way these external threats place limits on Jewish belonging in Brazil; and the ways in which Jewish diasporic imaginings and transnational practices seek to overcome the contradictions inherent in multiple forms of belonging. Underlying this research is my own relationship to this project, the theoretical questions that frame it, the methodological approach taken, and the setting within which the research was conducted. Classic ethnographies began with an arrival scene, drawing the reader into another world through the arduous travails of intrepid scholar-adventurers. Fieldwork in one of the world’s largest cities offered challenges to be sure, but so much of what earlier generations faced is inverted in such a hypermodern setting , especially when the research is conducted among a community of people quite familiar with social science and even more likely to discuss the research process and outcomes. So it seems fitting to invert the order, to begin with the end, a departure scene. Jewish Christmas Baskets I left São Paulo at the end of 1999, just before Christmas. After a prolonged spring, summer had finally arrived: schools had let out, vacations had begun, and the hated rodizio (rotation)—a traffic-reduction measure that kept one fifth of the cars off the road each weekday—was suspended for the summer months. With the new season’s popular music in the air, a collective joy spread in anticipation of carnaval.1 Having conducted field research at the Hebraica, the large social and athletic club that is a focal point for the Jewish community, I returned there for a final visit to make the rounds and say good-bye as I was preparing to leave. When I stopped by the office of the club’s Department of Departures ◆ 3 Jewish Culture, Sílvia and Kátia were busy as usual with preparations for the diverse events coordinated through this office.2 Sílvia was one of the many non-Jewish employees at the club, while Kátia was a member of the Jewish community and an active participant, as well as an employee. When I arrived, they had just received their cestas de Natal, the Christmas “baskets” distributed by the Personnel Department to all club employees , non-Jews and Jews alike. The Christmas basket is an extension of the cesta básica, the “basic basket,” a package of household goods that many employers distribute monthly to their employees. The retail cost of the standardized contents (including foodstuffs such as rice, beans, and cooking oil, as well as personal hygiene and cleaning products) is used as one of the measures of the cost of living against which the national minimum wage is compared. For holidays, the packages usually...

Share