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The president of Brazil’s Senate Davi Alcolumber said, Thursday, when meeting Morocco’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita, who was visiting the Latin American country, that he is of Moroccan origin.
«During our meeting, I told the minister that my maternal great-grandparents, Alberto and Sarah Alcolombre, left Tangier (Morocco) 110 years ago for Brazil, and that I respect the Moroccan people», he wrote on his official Twitter account.
No encontro, contei ao ministro que meus bisavós maternos, Alberto e Sara Alcolumbre, partiram de Tânger, no Marrocos, para o Brasil há 110 anos. Meu respeito ao povo marroquino.
— Davi Alcolumbre (@davialcolumbre) 13 juin 2019
The 41-year-old Brazilian politician, who was the first Jewish lawmaker to hold the presidency of the Brazilian Federal Senate, is indeed of Moroccan origin. In February, 2019, after he assumed office, media referred to his family origins.
On February 7, Brazilian news outlet Gazeta do Povo wrote that Alcolumber is a «Sephardic Jew who traces his origins to Spain and Portugal», adding that after his family was expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century his «forefathers settled in Morocco».
The politician’s family emigrated from Morocco to Northern Brazil in «two waves, first in 1905, and then in the 1930s», the same newspaper recalled.
Alcolumber has been a Senator for the state of Amapa since 2015 and served as a congressman from 2003 to 2015.
The Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Nasser Bourita, is currently on an official visit to Brazil. In Brasilia, the Minister met with a number of Brazilian officials, including his counterpart Ernesto Araujo.
