Prostitution and Judaism in O ciclo das águas, by Moacyr Scliar

Abstract

This article has as its main objective to analyze the book O ciclo das águas, by the author Moacyr Scliar, searching, through the story of Esther, highlighting the process of prostitution of Jewish girls, in particular the “Polish”, brought from Europe to Brazil. As prostitution involving Jews was a taboo in the Jewish community in Brazil, Moacyr Scliar pioneered the approach this theme through fiction. What must be considered is that the novel, as narrative genre, tackles about the reality of those Jewish women in Brazil, giving verisimilitude, but not limiting the description of reality (attribute of historiography), but their representation. Thus, through names like Kushnir (1996), Scliar (1985; 2002), and other authors, we intend to investigate the relation between “the sacred and the profane” that permeates the figure of the Jewish woman who becomes a prostitute, within a context in which prostitution and Judaism are intertwined.