Museu Judaico de São Paulo opens in restored synagogue with focus on diversity and anti-prejudice

In December 2021, the Museu Judaico de São Paulo (MUJ) was inaugurated within the renovated Templo Beth-El, a Byzantine-style synagogue established in 1932 by architect Samuel Roder. Felipe Arruda, the executive director, highlights the museum's commitment to a secular agenda that opposes all forms of prejudice. The opening featured two permanent exhibitions—A Vida Judaica and Judeus no Brasil: histórias trançadas—along with two temporary displays. The museum showcases various Jewish identities and contains the historical archive of USP, Brazil's largest Jewish archive, comprising 1 million document pages, 100,000 photographs, and 20,000 books. It received R$60 million in funding from non-Jewish contributors. Arruda also points out the challenges posed by a federal government hostile to cultural initiatives and the emergence of 530 active Nazi cells in Brazil. Future exhibitions will include works by Giselle Beiguelman.