Meet Rabbi Yeshayahu Bin Nun, Shavei Israel’s new emissary to Brazil
Rabbi Yeshayahu Bin Nun, Shavei Israel’s newest emissary
Shavei Israel has appointed Rabbi Yeshayahu Bin Nun as its newest emissary. Rabbi Bin Nun will be serving the Bnei Anousim community in Brazil. This is the first time a Shavei Israel emissary will be working specifically with Brazil’s Bnei Anousim. In 2004, Shavei Israel sent an emissary to the country, but he doubled as the main rabbi at the historic Kahal Zur Israel synagogue in the town of Recife.
Kahal Zur is the oldest synagogue in the Americas, founded in the year 1636 by Jews who were expelled from Portugal, moved to Holland and later settled in Brazil. In 1654, after the Portuguese captured Brazil from the Dutch, some of Recife’s Jews fled to “New Amsterdam,” which later became New York. The Jerusalem Post has an article about the Recife community and Shavei Israel’s activities here.
Rabbi Bin Nun, 36, was born in Brazil’s capital city of Brasilia to a Bnei Anousim family, so he is already familiar with the community he will be serving… and studying. One of his first tasks will be to map out the Bnei Anousim landscape in the country for Shavei Israel.
There are at least 30 different Bnei Anousim communities in Brazil, but the exact number of individuals and families affiliated with each, the organization of those communities, as well as their physical infrastructure (such as synagogues and mikvehs) is what Rabbi Bin Nun will explore.
“Brazil is a very large country,” explains Tzivia Kusminsky, who heads Shavei Israel’s outreach to the Bnei Anousim. “Some places are organized, but others aren’t.” According to some academics, the number of Brazilians with potentially Jewish roots could range between 3 and 5 million people, although confirming this number goes beyond Rabbi Bin Nun’s already ambitious mandate. You can read more about the Jewish history of Brazil here.
Rabbi Bin Nun will also teach classes, lead weekend retreats, and provide spiritual and educational support along the way. Once he has a better lay of the land, Shavei Israel staff from Israel plan to visit Brazil, to meet the communities and determine which additional services to provide.
Rabbi Bin Nun made aliyah in 2009 and received his rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Yaakov Peretz and Rabbi Shlomo Katzin at Jerusalem’s Beit Midrash Sephardi. He returned to Brazil where he served as the deputy rabbi for the Jewish Community of Porto Alegre, the capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and the center of Brazil’s fourth largest metropolitan area with a population of more than four million. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics put the Jewish population of the city at just over 15,000 – the third highest in the country. Porto Alegre may be best known in recent years as one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
In his new role, Rabbi Bin Nun, his wife and two children will be returning to Rabbi Bin Nun’s hometown of Brasilia. In an arrangement similar to Shavei Israel’s emissary to Colombia, Rabbi Shimon Yehoshua, Rabbi Bin Nun will spend most of his time traveling among Brazil’s Bnei Anousim communities while his family holds down the fort in Brasilia.
Rabbi Bin Nun started his position on July 14. Please extend a warm Shavei Israel welcome to our newest emissary and a return to Shavei Israel’s activities in Brazil. We will keep you posted on what Rabbi Bin Nun discovers as he maps the fascinating story of Brazil’s Bnei Anousim.