The Hamani family poses in their store in Obidos, on the Amazon River waterfront, where they have served passing navigators and "caboclo" jungle natives for decades. Mary (at far left) and Claudio (at far right) are first cousins. Marrying cousins was common among the Jewish communities of the Brazilian Amazon – where there were few other potential Jewish mates available. The Hamanis’ daughters, Ester and Carolina, do not wish to marry their cousins – so they must leave the jungle interior or assimilate, marrying non-Jews. Claudio believes this factor will eventually doom the Jewish community in the Amazon interior. “It is a great shame that the Amazon Jewish communities are disappearing,” Claudio says, “but our daughters don’t want to marry their cousins, and there is virtually no one else.”

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