The University of Haifa, the Brazil-Israel Institute and the Interdisciplinary Center of Jewish Studies (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – NIEJ)
International Conference on
Politics and Religion in Brazil and the Americas: Evangelical churches and their relations with Judaism, Zionism, Israel and the Jewish communities
13-15 January 2020
University of Haifa, Eshkol Tower, Ofer Observatory, 30th Floor
DAY I (Monday, 13 January)
14:15-14:30 Registration
14:30-15:30 Panel I – Opening Panel
Chair: Dr. Marcos Silber, University of Haifa, Israel
Greeting:
Prof. Gustavo Mesch, Rector of the University of Haifa
Dr. Michel Gherman, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – NIEJ
Rafael Kruchin, The Brazil-Israel Institute (São Paulo)
Keynote:
Prof. Paul Freston, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
The Expansion of Christian Zionism in Latin America and Africa
15:30 -16:00 Coffee break
16:00-18:30 Panel II – The Evangelistic Church’s. Introduction view
Chair and Commentator: Prof. Amos Megged, University of Haifa, Israel
Prof. Virginia Garrard, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Christian Zionism and the “Hebraic Turn” in Latin American Pentecostalism
Prof. James K. Wellman, Jr., University of Washington, USA
Sacrificing for the Sacred Center: What Christian Zionists Will Give up for Zion
Prof. David Lehmann, University of Cambridge (Emeritus), UK
In thrall to text: a Brazilian marriage of fundamentalism and hybridity
Dr. Yael Mabat, Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University, Israel
Keeping the Sabbath, Reading the Bible and Becoming a “True” Christian: The Seventh- day Adventist Indias and the Catholic Church, Puno, Peru, 1900-1930
DAY II (Tuesday, 14 January)
9:00-11:15 Panel III – Evangelist movements in the World
Chair and Commentator: Dr. Batia Siebzehner, Truman Institute, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Vanessa Rau, Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany
Object of desire or protestant redemption? Philo-Semitism, transgenerational guilt and the politics of desire among non-Jewish Germans in contemporary Berlin
Dr. Veronique Altglas, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Religious Exoticism and allo-semitism in a Messianic congregation (Northern Ireland)
Dr. Omar Ribeiro Thomaz, Unicamp, Campinas, Brazil
Mozambique. Discreet and delicate: a synagogue in the midst of wars
Prof. Miriam Billig and Dr. Gideon Elazar, Bar Ilan University and Ariel University, Israel
Back to Earth: Christian Zionism and Sacred Space in Samaria
11:15 -11:30 Coffee break
11:30-13:30 Panel IV – Brazil Israel USA – International Relations
Chair and Commentator: Prof. Zohar Zeguev, University of Haifa, Israel
Prof. Eran Shalev, University of Haifa, Israel
The Old and New Israel: The Cultural Origins of the United States-Israel Relationship
Dr. Glen Segell, University of Haifa, Israel
Why Brazil is supporting Israel in United Nations Votes?
Dr. Joseph A Edelheit, Divinity School of the University of Chicago, USA
Honesty is More Important than Support for Israel: The Politics of Denial in the Americas and ‘Messianic” Jews among Evangelical Christian Zionists
13:30 -14:30 Lunch
14:30-17:00 Panel V – The Evangelist church at Brazil. General view.
Chair and Commentator: Sebastian Klor, University of Haifa, Israel
Henrique Vieira, Priest and Social Scientist
Use of the memory of Israel in the context of a Brazilian evangelical extremism
Dr. Christian Dunker, University of São Paulo – USP, Brazil
Theology of Prosperity and Social Protective Narratives in the Raising of Evangelic Churches in Brazilian Contemporary Context
Dr. Guilherme Casarões, Fundação Getúlio Vargas/São Paulo School of Business, Brazil
The domestic roots of the Jerusalem embassy move: Christians and Zionists in Brazil and Paraguay
17:00 -17:30 Coffee break
17:30-19:00 Panel VI – The Evangelical Church in Brazil. Particular view I
Chair and Commentator: Mariusz Kałczewiak, University of Potsdam, Germany
Dr. Manoela Carpenedo, University of Kent, UK
Exploring post-modern fundamentalism in the 2018 election among the ‘Judaizing Evangelicals’ in Brazil
Thayane Fernandes, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
Under divine “double honor”: Ethnography of a “Jewish-Pentecostal: church in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Dr. Rodrigo Toniol, Unicamp, Campinas, Brazil
Salomon’s Temple: aesthetic transformations on the Brazilian pentecostalism
DAY III (Wendnesday, 15 January)
8:30-10:30 Panel VII – The Evangelical Church in Brazil. Particular view II
Chair and Commentator: Nahuel Ribke, Seminar Kibbutzim College, Israel
Dr. Franco Iacomini, Unicentro, Universidade Estadual do Centro-oeste do Paraná, Brazil
The Israel of God in Brazil: how dispensationalist theology, messianic myths and imagined communities engendered the political use of Jewish symbols by Brazilian right-wing
Dr. Ronaldo Almeida, Dr. Ronaldo Almeida, Brazil
Bolsonaro’s religion: between the Christian majority and the Jewish-Christian tradition
Leonel Caraciki, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
A new Replacement Theology? Christian Zionism as a Destabilizing Factor in Israel-Diaspora Relations
10:30 -11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 13:00 Panel VIII – National and International Politics of Brazil
Chair and Commentator: Rafael Kruchin, The Brazil-Israel Institute, São Paulo, Brazil
Dr. Deborah Hornblas Travassos, University of São Paulo (USP)
The rise of the new Brazilian right: the relationship between the election of Jair Bolsonaro and the appropriation of Jewish and Israeli symbols by neopentecostal churches
Jean Wyllys, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
Manipulate my fear- How new forms of (mis) information and processes of political and religious subjection contribute to the erosion of democracy in Brazil
Dr. Michel Gherman, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and Ben Gurion University, Israel
Brazilian New Left, Brazilian New White and the Imaginary Israel
13:00 – 13:45 Panel IX – And now what? Conclusion
Chair: Dr. Marcos Silber, University of Haifa, Israel
Dr. Michel Gherman, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – NIEJ
Dr. Paul Freston, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Rafael Kruchin, The Brazil-Israel Institute (São Paulo)
Final words: Aiala Wengrowicz Feller, University of Haifa, Israel
