Brazil papayas. The industry – from automobiles, steel and petrochemicals to computers, aircraft and consumer durables – accounted for 30.8% of the gross domestic product. Industry is highly concentrated in metropolitan São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Porto Alegre, and Belo Horizonte. Brazil has become the fourth largest car market in the world. Major export products include aircraft, electrical equipment, automobiles, ethanol, textiles, footwear, iron ore, steel, coffee, orange juice, soybeans and corned beef. In total, Brazil ranks 23rd worldwide in value of exports. Brazil pegged its currency, the real, to the U.S. dollar in 1994. However, after the East Asian
History of the Jews in Brazil The Jewish Confederation of Brazil (CONIB) estimates that there are more than 120,000 Jews in Brazil. There have been Jews in what is now Brazil since the first Portuguese arrived in the country in 1500, notably Mestre João and Gaspar da Gama who arrived in the first ships. A number of Sephardic Jews immigrated to Brazil during its early settlements. They were known as "New Christians" ("Conversos" or "Marranos" — Jews obliged to convert to Roman Catholicism by the Portuguese crown). The Jews from Portugal avoided immigrating to Brazil, because they would also be persecuted by the Inquisition. Most of