Published: 12 June 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
IN APRIL, REBECA POSTERNAK and her parents went out for a sushi dinner to celebrate her 23rd birthday in Boa Viagem, a suburb of her native city of Recife, Brazil.
Throughout much of Brazil, and in Recife especially, people with money in their wallets keep their time on the street at a minimum for fear of robbery. But because of social distancing connected to the coronavirus, the sushi restaurant had fewer seats and the Posternaks had to wait outside for a table.
A homeless beggar approached them asking for clean water and bread. The man explained that he used to sleep somewhat comfortably on the beach, but Brazilian beaches — they have taps with relatively clean drinking water — were closed to stem the spread of infections. That forced the man to sleep in the street, where older people like him are in danger of being preyed upon by younger people.
“He had been chased out of the restaurant before he approached us,” Posternak said. “They treated him as if he were garbage.”
The encounter put Posternak in touch with her privilege. “But it also exposed me to aspects of reality for many, many people that we haven’t even considered, that we don’t see on the news,” she said.
FULL STORY Brazilian Jews rush to help favelas as virus highlights country’s poverty issues (Times of Israel)
Photo: Rabbi Gilberto Ventura, right, and volunteers prepare to dispatch food packages to needy residents of Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 27 (Courtesy of Sinagoga sem Fronteiras/JTA)
