Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series
Misha Klein
Jewish Life in Brazil and Political Activism
March 14, 2019
*ITS Home *Jewish Learning Channel
*Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series
*Publications *About Us
Prof. Klein teaches classes on Ethnicity, Race, and Identity; Transnationalism & Diaspora; Urban Anthropology; Gender and Sexuality; Brazil; Latin America; Jewish Diaspora; Medical Anthropology; Anthropology of Work; Anthropology of Food; Applied Anthropology; Qualitative Methods.
Her book Kosher Feijoada and Other Paradoxes of Jewish Life in São Paulo (University of Florida Press) is one of the important books on Jewish life in Brazil. Being Jewish in Brazil, the world's largest Catholic country, is fraught with paradoxes, and living in São Paulo only amplifies these vivid contradictions. São Paulo is home to Jews from over 60 countries, and the Hebraica Center is the world's largest Jewish athletic and social club. Jewish identity is rooted in layered experiences of historical and contemporary dispersal and border crossings. Brazil is tolerant of cultural differences but less understanding of longings for elsewhere. Celebrating both Carnival and the High Holidays is but one example of how Jews in São Paulo hold themselves together as a community in the face of the forces of assimilation.
Comments on Kosher Feijoada and Other Paradoxes of Jewish Life in Sao Paulo:
“The special strength of this book, aside from its lyrical writing, is that the author effortlessly blends the meaning of being Jewish in Brazil with that country’s much noted racial and cultural tolerance and shows how Jewish identity is impacted by Brazilian concepts of race and ethnicity. It is a delight to read.”
—Maxine Margolis, University of Florida
“A fascinating ethnography of contemporary life among middle- and upper-middle class Jews in São Paulo, Brazil, one of the world’s largest cities. Although representing a tiny fraction of Brazil’s multicultural population, the Jewish community consciously creates and carefully maintains a tightly organized, lively haven in a chaotic urban center, while also embracing much of Brazil’s national culture.”
—Robin Sheriff, University of New Hampshire
Click for more information on the Distinguished Lecturers
- Shalom Sabar - Alma Gottlieb - Steven Ovitsky - Eugene Garver
- Misha Klein - Halley Faust - Alan Levenson - Deborah Lipstadt
- Zion Evrony - Tomer Persico - Avinoam Patt
Ticket sales cover a fraction of the costs, so we rely on your support to bring these scholars to Santa Fe. We would appreciate your making a donation to support the Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series.
which is a beneficiary organization of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.
