Our History
In the Porto Alegre of the 1980s, marked by political ferment and the revival of cultural life after two decades of conservatism, a silent yet urgent need was growing: to preserve the voices, faces, and stories of a community that had helped shape the city, but whose memories were threatened by oblivion.
It was against this backdrop that, on November 25, 1985, Jewish intellectuals and businesspeople joined forces and founded Marc Chagall Jewish Cultural Institute, with the purpose of creating a living archive dedicated to preserving history, conducting research, and promoting culture.
Thus, still in the 1980s, a project was launched that was unprecedented in the country: the collection of 570 interviews with Jewish immigrants and their descendants, which went on to become one of the largest oral history archives in Brazil. Over the years, more than 45,000 documents, audio recordings, and videos have been added to the collection, which is now widely consulted by Brazilian and foreign researchers, descendants, and those interested in the history of Jewish immigration to our country.
Choosing the name
The Institute is named after the Belarusian-born, naturalized French painter Marc Chagall, whose work lyrically depicted Jewish life in the early 20th century. More than just an artistic reference, Chagall symbolizes the ability to preserve a people’s identity, even far from their homeland. The founding of the Institute in 1985, the year of his death, gave the tribute an even more symbolic character.
