![Dr. Lemle (second, from left) was part of the delegation to the World Jewish Congress, from June 27 to July 6, 1948, in Montreux, Switzerland: “His Chalutzian [pioneer] spirit of closeness to Israel, which he maintained throughout his life, became to the silent listeners a light of hope in the darkness of the Nazi perspective, which presented increasingly dark shadows”](https://www.heritageandhistory.ch/site/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Lemle_CH_1948_jul_jun_Cong_Jud-1.jpg)
Invitation in three languages (German, Yiddish and Portuguese) for the first religious service held by Rabbi Dr. Lemle held in Rio de Janeiro according to the liberal rite, at the Grande Templo Israelita at rua Tenente Possolo
On February 24th, 1942, Rabbi Dr. Lemle buried the couple Lotte and Stefan Zweig in the City Cemetery of Petropolis according to the Jewish law
Dr. Lemle (second, from left) was part of the delegation to the World Jewish Congress, from June 27 to July 6, 1948, in Montreux, Switzerland: “His Chalutzian [pioneer] spirit of closeness to Israel, which he maintained throughout his life, became to the silent listeners a light of hope in the darkness of the Nazi perspective, which presented increasingly dark shadows”
Rabbi Dr. Lemle’s life and work
Rabbi Dr. Lemle started his career as a Rabbi in Mannheim, Germany, on April 1st, 1933 – the day of the boycott of Jewish establishments, businesses, doctors and lawyers’ practices. His uncle, father of his future wife Margot, was one of the first victims of Nazi persecution during a pogrom in Creglingen at the end of March of 1933.
Hired by the Liberal Congregation in Frankfurt am Main in 1934, Lemle was the first ever Rabbi for the Youth in Germany and worked there until his deportation to the KZ Buchenwald as a consequence of the pogrom in the night from 9th to 10th of November, known as Reichspogromnacht, mostly referred as Kristallnacht. He could be saved from Buchenwald through the intervention of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (London) and could escape to England, where he later again was interned as „enemy alien“ in a camp after the outburst of the II World War.
Once more through the help of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, he could emigrate to Rio de Janeiro at the end of 1940, where he founded the Congregation „Associação Religiosa Israelita“ (ARI) in January of 1942, with a group of German Jewish immigrants who have established themselves there since the 1930’s. Lemle was the rabbi who against all odds and defying the guide lines of dictator Getúlio Vargas buried the famous couple Lotte and Stefan Zweig according to the Jewish Law.
Lemle was among the pioneers in introducing, developing and sustaining Liberal Judaism in Brazil, giving it strength to exist beyond his death in September of 1978. Important marks in his life and work were his impact on various generation of Jewish people in Rio, his relationship to the Christian world in Brazil, his very Zionistic position and his ability to integrate himself and the ones around him to the new country.