Medieval bath may be earliest Jewish vestige in Brazil

By Marcus M. GilbanOctober 17, 2018 4:27pm



RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Historians are investigating whether a 17th-century bath found in Brazil’s first capital city is the country’s oldest evidence of a Jewish presence.

The bath was discovered 10 years ago inside an old hotel located in Pelourinho, the historic center area of Salvador, the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia.

According to the facility’s manager, an Orthodox Jew first raised the hypothesis that the bathtub might actually be a mikvah, or a ritual bath.

“I didn’t know what a mikvah was, but this information indeed matches the fact that there were many new Christians here in the historic center area, in Bahia state, in the Brazilian northeastern region,” Bruno Guinard told G1, referring to the Jews who were forced or chose to convert to Christianity in the 15th century to save their lives but kept their Jewishness in secrecy.

More:
https://www.jta.org/2018/10/17/news-opinion/medieval-bath-may-earliest-jewish-vestige-brazil