The Estaiada Bridge in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Brazil joined the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) last month as an observer country, the government announced in a released statement.

The IHRA unites governments, international organizations and experts who have the common goal of combating antisemitism and preserving the memory of the Holocaust.

Brazil applied for observer country status in September and was approved on Nov. 9—the 83rd anniversary of the 1938 Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken Glass.”

“Brazilian diplomacy will seek to work within the IHRA to promote education and research on the Holocaust, as well as to improve national policies to combat antisemitism, in the context of the Brazilian commitment to combat all forms of racism, intolerance and discrimination,” said the government.

The IHRA now consists of 35 member countries, nine observer countries and eight permanent international partners.

Brazil is home to the second largest Jewish community in Latin America and the 10th largest in the world.

Two former members of the Brazilian Foreign Service—the late diplomat Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa and late Ambassador Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas—were given the title of “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in honor of their efforts to save hundreds of Jews from Nazi persecution.