Avraham Amitai, a graduate of Israeli rabbinical seminaries, has recently been chosen to become the new rabbi for Brazil's crypto-Jews. Hewas recently dispatched to minister full-time to the B’nei Anusim community in the cities of Recife and Fortaleza. “When Brazil’s Jewish federation approached us about the need for a rabbi to serve in the area, we knew this was an opportunity that could not be missed,” Michael Freund, chairman of Shavei Israel, the Jerusalem-based group that sent Amitai, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. B’nei Anusim, which means “children of the coerced,” are descendants of Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity. Freund said the area around Recife in northeastern Brazil is thought to have one of the largest concentrations of B’nei Anusim in the world.
