Saravá Shalom (Synagogue of Ancestral Commitments)

Sarava Shalom (Synagogue of Ancestral Commitments) is a poetic documentary about dialogue between Afro-Brazilian, Indigenous and Jewish mystical traditions. Brazil, 2026 | 82 min.

André Feitosa, artist from the Northern Brazil, discovered that his family descends from enslaved Africans, indigenous people and Jews who were forcibly converted by the Inquisition. André delves into the archives and reconstructed his family tree for dozens of generations. Where he lacks records, he consults mediums in the Afro-Brazilian temples.

The film travels from the sacred mountains in the south of Brazil to the backlands of Northeast, from the spiritist Jewish center in Rio de Janeiro to the Inquisition squares in Portugal weaving together worlds and diasporas in a single enchanted temple of the “Synagogue of Ancestral Commitments.”

Filmmaker Alex Minkin will speak with us after the screening along with UCLA professor Bryan Pitts, and join us for a reception.

Alex Minkin is a visual anthropologist and cultural activist, focusing his research on the intersections between Jewish and Brazilian cultures. Alex
studied at the Archives Project of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Moscow and graduated from the James Striar School of General Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University.

Bryan Pitts is a historian of 20th century Brazil. He is the author of Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship. He has also conducted research on the role of religion in shaping ethnic identity in the Syrian-Lebanese community in São Paulo.

Watch the trailer here.

This event is cosponsored by Kultur Mercado, Jewtina y co, and the UCLA Center for Brazilian Studies.