Jerusalem and Sao Paulo The New Jewish

"Jerusalem and Sao Paulo is a pioneering work of over four years of anthropological research on the "repentance," or return to Jewish roots phenomenon, in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The return-to-Jewish-roots phenomenon is identified by its Hebrew name of teshuvah, and the individuals involved are called "baalei teshuvah" (repentants)." "Jerusalem and Sao Paulo describes the long process these young people undergo in their choice of Jewish Orthodoxy. Due to the fact that Judaism is an ortho-practical religion, which emphasizes praxis over belief and dogma, the conversion to Orthodoxy is radical, traumatic, and more encompassing than that experienced by other Brazilians who adopt religions such as Neo-Pentacolism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Afro-Brazilian creeds. The book examines the following processes and contexts and their interrelationships: Globalization of religion, the Brazilian market of religious goods, the History of the Jewish community in Sao Paulo, and the teshuvah movement in Israel and the United States."--BOOK JACKET.

Marta F. Topel is a researcher and a junior lecturer in the Program for Jewish Studies of the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil).

Preface	p. ix
Notes	p. xv
Acknowledgements	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Approaching the subject: some reflections	p. 1
External factors: how it happened	p. 3
On syncretism and the permiability of borders: some observations about the religious landscape in Brazil	p. 3
Brooklyn and Jerusalem, or how globalisation has influenced Orthodox Judaism in Brazil	p. 5
The 1970s and the consolidation of the teshuvah movement in the United States and Israel	p. 9
Internal factors: what happened	p. 12
Some methodological considerations	p. 15
Notes	p. 18
Hansen's Law: What a Grandfather wants to forget, His Grandson wants to remember	p. 21
Brazilian Judaism in the XXth century	p. 21
From immigration to the forming of ethnic enclaves: some theoretical considerations	p. 22
The early years of Judaism in Sao Paulo	p. 24
The first volte-face	p. 26
Jewish Orthodoxy and Sao Paulo Jewish Orthodoxy before the Teshuvah Movement	p. 28
A hat is a hat is a hat. Some thoughts on religious life in Sao Paulo from the turn of the Century to 1980	p. 31
Who is a Jew? Or on the tension between universal values and individual values within Judaism	p. 34
Notes	p. 37
The Brazilian Jewish Community's Pikuach Nefesh, or the First Seeds of the Teshuvah Movement in the Tropics	p. 41
The Yeshiva of Petropolis: Some facts	p. 41
The challenge of leading the way, or how to remove the dust from the Jewish souls and make them shine	p. 45
The return of hassidism and the crystalization of the Chabad movement in Sao Paulo	p. 45
The Binyan Olam, or the Brazilianizing of Lithuanian Judaism	p. 51
Hassidic and Lithuanian Jews in Sao Paulo, or the creation of a plausibility structure for the new Orthodox	p. 56
Notes	p. 61
Teshuvah as a Fundamental Idea within Judaism	p. 65
Teshuvah in historic sources	p. 65
Religious praxis in the process of religious conversion	p. 70
The process of conversion: from what to what?	p. 74
Notes	p. 82
Recruiting New Members	p. 85
On religious proselytism in Brazilian society and the Teshuvah movement: some facts	p. 85
Keruv strategies in Israel and the USA	p. 88
Proselytist rabbis in Sao Paulo: Keruv strategies and the recruitment of new members	p. 93
Teaching Orthodox Judaism: courses, lectures and seminars organized by the proselytist rabbis of Sao Paulo	p. 94
The gastronomic experience as a window onto Judaism: some considerations	p. 99
Orthodox incursions into lay Judaism: some conquests	p. 102
Not saints, nor prophets, nor miracle makers: the proselytist rabbis of Sao Paulo	p. 106
Notes	p. 110
The Yoke of the Mitzvot: A Long Journey	p. 113
Ve'kidshanu Be'mitzvotav, or of the sacred in Judaism	p. 113
Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah: Learning how to be a devout Jew	p. 117
Collective myths and individual memory: the baal teshuvah and the past	p. 128
"The world out there" and the relations between the baal teshuvah and the other: implications for the process of returning to Orthodoxy	p. 135
Notes	p. 140
On the Baalot Teshuvah and the Many Challenges they face in Becoming Good Jewesses	p. 143
Introduction	p. 143
The role of women in the Orthodox community and in Jewish mythology: problems, paradoxes and challenges	p. 144
In search of Jewish Femininity and of a feminine space: the baalot teshuvah	p. 149
Conclusions	p. 154
Notes	p. 157
Judaism, Religious Identity and Globalization. On the Consolidation of the Orthodox Community in Sao Paulo	p. 159
Religious globalization and the Teshuvah movement in/of Sao Paulo	p. 159
The Brazilianization of the Teshuvah movement	p. 164
Returning home or reinventing the past? Reflections on the process of rewriting Jewish Orthodox History	p. 167
Notes	p. 172
Glossary	p. 173
Bibliography	p. 177
Index	p. 187
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Jerusalem and Sao Paulo The New Jewish Orthodoxy in Focus

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