Non-Jews, Jews, and The Brazilian New Right Movements: A Case of Political Conversion and “Disconversion”

I the present research, I offer reflections on the meaning of the use of Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist symbols in the contemporary political context of Brazil. In this context, we also explore the meanings of the appearance of these symbols at protests by the Brazilian “New Right” beginning with the mass demonstrations during the second decade of the twentieth century. In this reflections we also seek to understand the relations between these symbols and conservative groups in the country. In this process I intend also discuss the dialectic between rupture and continuity within Jewish Brazilian institutions where traditional definitions of belonging and boundaries were challenged when sectors of the Jewish community enthusiastically supported the candidate from the extreme right in the 2018 elections, resulting in previously unimaginable tensions with progressive and leftist groups. Finally, I also propose in this research a reflection on the changes in the meaning of the concept of race in Brazil following the Durban Conference in 2001 and its echoes in the relations between Jewish and Afro-descendant populations in Brazil.