Os filhos de Abraão em uma nova terra prometida: judeus sefarditas no Nordeste brasileiro

Abstract

This study analyzes how Sephardic identities are constructed and updated in contemporary Northeastern Brazil, based on the relationship between family trajectories and the historical presence of New Christians in the region. This qualitative, bibliographic, and documentary study starts from the hypothesis that this identity does not correspond to the intact preservation of a past, but to a process of selecting, interpreting, and transmitting historical and religious references. The corpus comprises books, articles, theses, dissertations, institutional data, and audiovisual productions, examined through documentary analysis and bibliographic review, combined with an anthropological approach to memory and religion. The results indicate that surnames, domestic customs, celebrations, sites such as the Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, and narratives of return function as repertoires of memory, without constituting genealogical proof in isolation. The study concludes that Sephardic belonging is produced through the articulation of history, cultural memory, religion, and social recognition.