Rabbi Henrique Lemle, the spiritual leader of the German-Jewish congregation here died last Friday at the age of 68 after suffering a heart attack. Born in Augsburg, Germany, he served as a rabbi in Mannheim and Frankfurt-am-Main and also in Hove, England. He came to Rio de Janeiro during World War II and founded the Associacao Religiosa Israelita, the congregation of immigrants from Germany.
Lemle also inaugurated the Hebrew Chair of the Federal University in Rio where he was a professor and was the co-founder of the Christian-Jewish Fraternal Council. He was the author of a number of books on Judaism and anti-Semitism. He was named honorary citizen of Rio and had on Honorary Doctorate at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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