“Kneel before the anti-Israel altar”

Matheus Alexandre is doing his doctorate at the Sociological Institute of the University of Ceará with a dissertation on contemporary anti-Semitism in Brazil. He also works at Stand With Us Brasil, a US-based NGO that works to shed light on anti-Semitic prejudices.

According to them, before October 7, 2023, most Jews in Brazil would probably have said that anti-Semitism was not a particularly big social problem. What changed after October 7th?

Previously, there had been occasional anti-Semitic incidents in the left-wing milieu, and the anti-Semitism among neo-Nazi cells has kept us busy in recent years. But we thought that anti-Semitism in Brazil only occurred on the fringes of society. After October 7th a real change took place. Anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic views about Israel became increasingly common, even among democratic leftists. More and more conspiracy theories spread. Over the past three years, anti-Semitism has become almost commonplace.

“Immediately after October 7th, a meme went viral that showed on one side Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding his body, and on the other side a Palestinian mother with the body of her son, who was allegedly murdered by Israel.”

For your research, you conduct interviews with Jews throughout Brazil. What are they telling you?

Many tell me that since October 7th they have felt the need to declare themselves Jewish, some for the first time. Others speak of the fear of openly wearing Jewish symbols. I think the Jewish community has spoken more about anti-Semitism in the past three years than ever before in the country's recent history. The last time the Jewish community felt compelled to discuss and take organized action against anti-Semitism was in the 1930s and 1940s. This was during the regime of Getúlio Vargas, which was institutionally anti-Semitic.

Wasn't there also strong anti-Semitism under the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1988?

Yes, this dictatorship was also anti-Semitic. However, these historical anti-Semitic episodes took place under autocratic, dictatorial regimes. We have had a democracy in Brazil since 1988, and October 7, 2023 changed the lives of Jews for the first time within a democratic society.

Do you encounter anything specific about anti-Semitism in Brazil?

Brazil is a very Catholic country. The accusation that the Jews killed Jesus is widely spread on social media here. Immediately after October 7, a meme went viral that showed Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding his body on one side, and a Palestinian mother holding the body of her son, who was allegedly murdered by Israel, on the other side. The caption read: “Same story 2,000 years later.”

Is this an idea that can actually turn leftists against Jews?

Yes, even a left-wing parliamentarian recently made this accusation. Parliament should confirm Jorge Messias for a seat on the Supreme Court. But the left-wing government's preferred candidate failed. Senator Kátia Abreu from the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) then posted on X that every era had its own Judas, and "Judas was a Jew." She thereby suggested that Senate President David Samuel Alcolumbre (who is Jewish; editor's note) had betrayed President Lula da Silva, who also belongs to the PT, in this vote. So yes, this religious mythology of deicide is widespread in Brazilian popular culture.

"Since October 7th, around 20 books have been published in Portuguese that, in one form or another, take an anti-Zionist perspective."

The presidential election is coming up in Brazil in October. They have expressed concern that Jews could be made into a campaign issue. Can you explain that?

Just as is already the case in many countries around the world where Israel, Zionism and the Jews have become the subject of election campaigns, I fear that this could also happen in Brazil. According to the motto, this candidate is pro-Israel, that one is anti-Israel, so you vote for the anti-Israel candidate to stand up for Palestinian children. Several left-wing Democratic politicians in the USA are focusing on the fight against the “Zionist lobby,” and this can be observed particularly in the primary election campaign. In Brazil, too, there are some candidates who are only making their mark through this debate and are already using the keffiyeh as a visual feature of their image campaign to get into the Brazilian parliament, and I'm not talking about politicians of Palestinian origin.

The consensus on the Brazilian left, but also worldwide, is now this: To be truly left-wing, you have to kneel before the anti-Israel altar. Only if you are against Israel can you be considered a real leftist.

So do the Brazilian parliamentarians want to come across as particularly left-wing radical?

The topic can be used to polarize people wonderfully and it can be marketed well. An indication of this is provided, for example, by the fact that since October 7th, around 20 books have been published in Portuguese, both scientific and literary, which in one form or another adopt an anti-Zionist perspective.

In Brazil, too, it was generally accepted that domestic issues determine the outcome of the election, not foreign issues. Is that no longer the case?

The elections are about Brazil and Brazilians, the future of our politics, the use of our public resources, the social well-being of our people, the fight against poverty and social inequality. But when Israel appears at the center of all these discussions, we are saying – indirectly or directly – that Israel is responsible for our injustices. This sounds worryingly like so-called redemptive anti-Semitism, according to which, in order to achieve global justice, one must first eliminate Israeli injustice. Often enough in people's minds this means the extinction of Israel's existence.

Can you explain this with a specific example?

One claim that has come to prominence in Brazil around 2013 is that there is a connection between the killings of black and poor people in Brazil's favelas and the injustices committed by Israel against the Palestinian population. Israel's weapons kill in Palestine and kill in the Brazilian favelas, is the short version of it. This cannot be proven empirically. Most of the weapons supplied to the Brazilian armed forces and police come from the USA or from the Brazilian weapons manufacturer Taurus.

In 2025, 6,602 people died from police violence in Brazil, more than in any year since 2016 - and that was under a left-wing government. It might come in handy if Israel is to blame for this, don't you think?

You quickly get rid of the responsibility for racism in your own society and then you no longer have to do anything to combat police violence and violence against black and poor people in your communities.

This draws attention to the Middle East, while the Brazilian state has been condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for various violations.

After Jair Bolsonaro's term, shouldn't the current left-wing government be a reason for joy for all leftists?

Internally, the government is struggling and the economy is recovering only slowly. The right-wing extremist forces are also still strong. The fact that leading left-wing politicians are making Israel an issue certainly has ideological reasons, but it is also a strategy to attract the base, which needs encouragement given the government's inadequacies in dealing with classic left-wing issues such as education and structural inequality. And even if the government has so little left-wing politics to offer, by raising the issue of Israel it can signal that it is radical, at least on this issue, and is moving into confrontation.

So the classic, Israel is the scapegoat?

Yes, this is how we turn our attention to the Middle East, while the Brazilian state has been condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for various violations. But no one on the left is discussing this and thinking about what structural changes there need to be in our politics and in our state. But everyone is looking at the Middle East and celebrating that South Africa is suing Israel in the International Court of Justice.

Her research focus is on left-wing anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, you warn against seeing anti-Semitism only on the left and the right as a natural ally of the Jews. Why is this reservation important to you?

I think it is essential to address this even more strongly. A global phenomenon can be observed here, namely that right-wing extremist forces in many countries present themselves as allies of the Jews in the defense of Israel. We see that politicians claim that in order to defend the Jews we must limit immigration and expel foreigners. But behind this is usually the conspiracy theory of the “Great Exchange”: According to it, the white and Christian population of Europe should be exchanged for Muslim population groups. In this idea, it is often the Jews who are behind the “Great Exchange”. I don't think that an extreme right that foments such racism and spreads such conspiracy theories to explain the world will make life safer for Jews. I believe the opposite is true.