Casa do Povo (Brazil)

Casa do Povo is the popular name of Instituto Cultural Israelita Brasileiro, a cultural center founded and historically run by left-oriented Jewish communities in São Paulo, Brazil. Founded in 1953, it was established as a living monument to the memory of the millions murdered during the Second World War. Several innovative and progressive projects have been based at Casa do Povo, such as the experimental school Sholem Aleichem, the theatre TAIB, the newspaper “Nossa Voz” (“Our Voice”), and currently several collective cultural, activist, and artistic projects that are open to all the social groups of the city. Casa do Povo’s neighbourhood,  Bom Retiro, has historically received different waves of immigrant groups, including Jews, Greeks, Koreans and Bolivians, among others – and they are all active and welcome participants in the house’s activities. In Casa do Povo, memory serves as a basis for the construction of a better future based on tolerance, diversity, human rights, and redistribution.