One of Brazil’s most prominent Jewish activists, Gerson Bergher, dies at age 91.
A former president of the Brazilian Zionist Organization, Bergher, who served as a politician in Brazil for many years, died Monday in Rio. He reportedly began his political career based on advice to do so by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.
Bergher had a longtime and openly pro-Jewish and pro-Israel political career as a member of both the Rio state assembly and the Rio city council. In the 1990s and 2000s, as council president, he served as acting mayor a few times. In 2014, he began his latest term in the assembly.
Brazilian Jewish politician Gerson Bergher. (Screenshot from YouTube)
“Bergher was the dean of politicians of the Jewish-Brazilian community and a loyal activist of the Zionist movement in Brazil,” Israel honorary consul and former president of the Rio Jewish federation Osias Wurman says. “He idealized the Holocaust memorial to be built soon.”
— JTA
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