"Jew but Christian": a new political identity in Brazil?

On October 11, 2018, between the first and second round of presidential elections, Filipe Martins, who would later become Special Advisor for International Affairs to the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, shared a post on his Twitter account in which he defended the then candidate of the accusation that he was a "Nazi", asserting that the then candidate "placed a Jew with family in Israel as the party`s International Affairs Secretary". One follower asked: “Are you a Jew, Filipe? I loved knowing”. And his answer was: “Yes, but a Christian one. Only the part of the family that lives in Israel follows Judaism”.

In the expression used by Martins, the combined use of two references, which are generally exclusive, is noteworthy – those who are Jewish are not Christians; whoever is a Christian is not a Jew. Even more revealing is the use of the adversative conjunction "but" rather than the additive "and" or even the direct form "Christian Jew". It can mean many things: that the ancestry is Jewish, but the religion is Christian; that the religion is Jewish, but incorporates Christian elements (eg, a Messianic Jew or a believer in Jesus / Jew for Jesus). Or, still, a deeper phenomenon: that one is a Jew, but not a “Jewish Jew”. The "Jew but Christian" is always Zionist and never diasporic; it is always on the right, and never on the left; and, above all, it`s always white - or at least that`s how it`s understood.

I propose taking the expression “Jew but Christian” as a category to give visibility and interpret a phenomenon that has become common as a political identity in Brazil. To a greater or lesser extent, Abraham Weintraub, Bia Kicis, Joice Hasselmann, Filipe Martins, among others, have already linked themselves to this new political identity, which echoes the proclaimed "Judeo-Christian" tradition or civilization.