New Christians from Portugal immigrated to Rio de Janeiro from the 16th to the 18th centuries, and they played a significant role in the city's social and economic life. The Inquisition accused and prosecuted more than 300 New Christians in the city's region for practicing Judaism. With the proclamation of the independent Brazilian empire (1822) and the promulgation of the Constitution (1824), which espoused relative religious tolerance, some individual European Jewish dealers and immigrants began to appear in Rio de Janeiro, which was the capital and one of the most important harbors of the country. One of the prominent individuals among these first newcomers was Denis de Samuel (1782–1860), a young immigrant from England who gained great success and influence and earned the title of baron from the king of Portugal. Another prominent dealer who had business in Rio de Janeiro was Bernard Wallerstein.

The first attempt at communal organization was made in 1840–50 by Jews originating from Morocco who went to Rio de Janeiro from northern Brazil. The organization União Shel Guemilut Ḥassadim, which still exists, ascribes its origin to this attempt. In 1867 a council of the Alliance Israélite Universelle was established in the city. In 1873, Sociedade União Israelita do Brazil, a society for religious and welfare matters was registered; it continued its activities until 1893. Another institution of the imperial period was Sociedade Israelita do Rito Português (Jewish Society of the Portuguese Rite).

At the time of proclamation of the Republic (1889) the number of Jews in Rio de Janeiro was estimated at 200. In 1900 there were two synagogues, one formed by North African immigrants and the other by West European immigrants. In 1900 a new wave of Jewish immigration began, and by the end of World War I the city's Jewish population was estimated at 2,000.

A great wave of Jewish immigration to Rio de Janeiro occurred after World War I, and as the Jewish community grew, communal life became more diversified. The Jewish community established a well-organized institutional life and reached successful economic, social, and cultural integration into local culture and society.

In 1910 the Centro Israelita do Rio de Janeiro was founded; its principal objective was the establishment of a synagogue and a cemetery. The latter was founded in 1920 in Vila Rosali. The first philanthropic institution was established under the name Achiezer in 1912; its name was changed later (1920) to Sociedade Beneficente Israelita e Amparo aos Imigrantes (Hilfs-Ferein-Relief). The "Relief " was linked to ICA, HIAS, and Emigdirect, and in 1942 founded a Departamento de Seguro Mútuo Social (Department of Mutual Social Insurance), which in fact was a credit cooperative.

Other social institutions founded were: Sociedade das Damas Israelitas (Jewish Women's Association–Froein Farein, 1923); Lar da Criança Israelita (Jewish Children's Home, 1923); Policlínica Israelita (1937, that later became a hospital); and Lar da Velhice (Old Age Home, 1963), created by Sociedade das Damas Israelitas). Jewish women prostitutes founded in Rio de Janeiro the Associação Beneficente Funerária e Religiosa Israelita (Beneficient, Funeral, and Religious Jewish Association) that functioned from 1906 to 1968.

During World War II the Jewish community was active and founded the Comitê Hebreu-Brasileiro para as Vítimas da Guerra (Jewish Brazilian Committee for War Victims) and the Comitê de Socorro aos Israelitas Vítimas de Guerra (Aid Committee for Jewish War Victims). The writer Stefan *Zweig immigrated to Brazil in 1936, joined the Jewish community, and wrote a famous book about the country: Brasil, país do futuro. His suicide in 1942 (together with his wife, Lotte), in the countryside city of Petrópolis, was a notable event in the life of the Jewish community and Brazilian history.

The community had its social and cultural center in the Praça Onze, close to the downtown area and the port, where an atmosphere of "Yiddishkeit" was present in daily life until the 1950s, when the Jews moved to other neighborhoods. The writer and Zionist leader Samuel Malamud is the main narrator of the memories from Praça Onze and of Jewish life in Rio de Janeiro. In Praça Onze, also the center of the local Carnaval and a cultural and social meeting point for black people, almost 3,000 Jews frequented the socialist club Cabiras, the parties of the Azul e Branco Club, and other local non-Jewish institutions.

Many Jewish leftist movements and parties were very active in Rio de Janeiro, among them socialists, communists, and the Bund, in the Biblioteca Israelita Brasileira Scholem Aleichem (Jewish Brazilian Sholem Aleichem Library, 1915), Colégio Israelita Brasileiro Scholem Aleichem (Jewish Brazilian Sholem Aleichem School, 1928), Sociedade Brasileira Pró-Colonização Judaica na União Soviética–Brazkor (Brazilian Society for the Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union, 1928), and Centro Operário Morris Vinchevsky (Morris Vinchevsky Labor Center, 1928). The last two organizations founded a workers' school (Arbeter Shule) and edited the newspaper Der Onheib. Other leftist organizations were the União Cultural Israelita Brasileira Ikuf, Clube dos Cabiras (1941–50), the Associação Feminina Israelita Brasileira Vita Kempner, and the Associação Kinderland. In 2005 the Associação Scholem Aleichem (ASA) was an active political and cultural center and edited the Boletim da ASA, the sole Jewish leftist publication in Portuguese.

The Yiddish press was very active in Rio de Janeiro with the publication of a few newspapers: Dos Yidishe Vochenblat, Yidishe Presse, and Brazilianer Yidishe Tzaytung. Other important publications in Portuguese were the weekly magazine Aonde Vamos?, and O Reflexo. Adolf Eizen was a Brazilian pioneer of comics.