For more than two decades, I have researched and documented the history, culture, and legacy of Jewish communities in the Amazon region, with a special focus on the Moroccan Jews who settled in the Brazilian Amazon from the nineteenth century onward. In this presentation, I explore their journey from North Africa to the Amazon, the reasons that led them to seek new opportunities in this remote region, and how they adapted to life along the great rivers while preserving their Jewish identity.

Through historical records, family stories, photographs, and personal research, I highlight the contributions of these immigrants to the economic, social, and cultural development of the Amazon, including the rubber boom, river trade, community formation, and religious life.

Beyond recounting the past, I reflect on migration, resilience, identity, and belonging, and how a small community far from traditional centers of Jewish life maintained its heritage while becoming part of Amazonian history.

As Vice President and former President of the Jewish Community of the Amazon (CIAM), I also share contemporary perspectives, showing that this story is not only history, but a living legacy.