The Jews of Portugal

By Alan M. Tigay

According to an old story, Portugal’s King José I was considering an inquisitional proposal to require descendants of Jews to wear yellow hats so they could be identified in public. One day the Marquês de Pombal, his prime minister, arrived at court carrying three yellow hats. When the king asked who they were for, the marquis replied, “One for me, one for you and one for the grand inquisitor.” The story was apocryphal, but it could have been true. What’s more, it could still be true today. Among the prominent Portuguese who have Jewish ancestors are President Jorge Sampaio and Dom Pio Duarte, heir of the Portuguese royal family (the monarchy was overthrown in 1910).Though the current cardinal of Lisbon is not known to have Jewish roots, his predecessor, the late Manuel Cardinal Gonçalves Cerejeira, did. And even if there are no professing Jews among the characters, their ancestry demonstrates how intertwined the Jewish story is in Portuguese history, and how hard it is to separate the two.

History:

Some legends trace Jewish residence in Portugal to biblical times and there is documentary evidence of community life under the Visigoths in the fifth century B.C.E. When Portugal emerged as a distinct nation in the twelfth century there were established communities in several cities and King Alfonso I appointed the first of many Jewish treasurers. The kingdom had centers of Jewish learning and Jews also played a major role in the country’s financial development and the explorations that made it a world power. It is unclear how many Jews lived in Portugal in 1492, but the community was overwhelmed by an influx of Spanish Jews many times its size. When four years later King Manoel I of Portugal agreed to rid his country of Jews (a promise he made to arrange for the marriage of his son to Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter), he chose forced conversion so as not to lose a community he regarded as an asset. Whenever they could, secret Jews fled, founding or swelling Jewish communities in Amsterdam, London, Bordeaux and Hamburg to the north and from Venice to Salonika to the east. So visible were the émigrés in international trade that the term “Portuguese” became synonymous with “Jews.” In addition to the emigration to free lands, many of these New Christians headed for Portugal’s remote northeast, where the Inquisition was weaker, and to the new colonies.

The Marquês de Pombal broke the power of the Inquisition in the late eighteenth century, though it wasn’t abolished until 1821. In the nineteenth century a new community began to take form, as Sefardim from Gibraltar and Morocco—many undoubtedly with roots in Portugal—arrived in Lisbon and the Algarve. The first post-Inquisition synagogue was built in Lisbon in 1902. In the two decades before World War II small numbers of Ashkenazim arrived from Russia, Germany and Poland.

During the war, thousands of Jews moved through neutral Portugal. Before it adopted a more liberal visa policy, Portuguese consulates routinely denied visas to refugees—except in Bordeaux, where the consul, Aristedes de Sousa Mendes, defied orders and issued 10,000 visas before being ordered back to Lisbon and fired. He was ultimately recognized as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

Community:

There are about 1,000 Jews in Portugal, of whom 600 live in the Lisbon area, 180 in Belmonte and 120 within two hours of Porto. Those of Jewish descent who are pursuing their roots in one way or another would add modestly to the numbers. In central Lisbon, some Jews live near the main synagogue, Shaare Tikva, at Rua Alexandre Herculano 59 (telephone, 213-858-604), and there is another concentration of sorts along la linha, the rail line that goes to the seaside communities of Estoril and Cascais. There is also a small Ashkenazic synagogue, Ohel Jacob, at Rua Elias Garcia 110 (217-971-033), where about one third of the regular congregants are anousim—descendants of crypto-Jews seeking their way back to Judaism.

Sights:

The hub of Lisbon is the Rossio, the central square crisscrossed by bus and tram lines and surrounded by shops, restaurants and the National Theater. The stately nineteenth-century theater, at the square’s north end, is on the site of the old Ministry of Justice, where mass forced baptisms of Jews were carried out in 1497 and where the Inquisition was later administered. Just off the square is the São Domingos Church, where sentences of the Inquisition were passed.

In December 1996, the government staged a series of “acts of atonement” to mark the 500th anniversary of the edict that led to the forced conversions. One of the acts, held in the National Theater, was a reenactment of the edict’s promulgation.

An earthquake destroyed much of Lisbon in 1755 wiping out, among other things, the street pattern that made it possible to locate the old Jewish quarters. The grid between the Rossio and the city’s waterfront was laid out under the Marquês de Pombal’s ambitious rebuilding project. Most of the old Jewish quarters are on the eastern edge of the grid. In the centuries before the mass conversions, Jews lived near the present-day Church of São Nicolau and along the Rua da Madelena, a largely commercial street with tile façades and wrought-iron railings that descends to the Tagus River. On the Rua da Alfândega, a historical marker in front of the Church of Conceição Velha makes reference to the synagogue that is believed to have stood on the site. A carved figure of Moses can be seen on the arched window to the left of the church’s entrance.

The Alfama is famous for its old narrow streets that survived the earthquake. The neighborhood is often depicted in romantic scenes of Lisbon and the clubs where singers perform mournful fado songs. It was here that many Jewish refugees from Spain settled in the fifteenth century. The entrance to the neighborhood’s Jewish quarter, or Judiaría, is through the Arco de Rosario. Just inside the arch is a brick wall with a pair of decorative arched windows near the top—all that remains of the quarter’s synagogue.

Continuing up the winding stairway just inside the arch is the Rua da Judiaría. The lanes in the area are lined with hanging laundry and street lamps in the form of scalloped sconces. Typical of the era when it was a Jewish quarter, many of the houses have a narrow door that was the family entrance and a wider door that was the business entrance. West of the Rossio, a cluster of Lisbon’s best known sites show how integral the Jewish role was in Portugal’s golden age. At the spot where explorers embarked, the Monument to the Discoveries is built in the shape of a caravel ready to sail and includes many of the navigators, scientists and cartographers who helped make Portugal a world power. Among the New Christians who appear on the monument are Pedro Nunes, Pedro de Alenquer, Pero da Covilhã, Jaime de Maiorca, Fernão Mendes Pinto and Frei Henrique de Carvalho, the priest who celebrated the first mass in Brazil. At the prow is Prince Henry the Navigator, whose center for exploration was (at a time when Jews could still worship freely) a true equal-opportunity employer (see cover). The Jerónimos Monastery (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos) is one of the great ecclesiastical buildings financed by the exploration. The sixteenth-century edifice is considered one of the finest examples of Manueline architecture. On the southern portal, facing the river, the decorative sculpture above the left door includes a figure of Moses carrying the Ten Commandments. Above the main portal, which is actually an interior entrance off the building’s south side, is an unusual nativity scene. Instead of a manger, Jesus lies in what appears to be a straw basket. Some believe it was sculpted by a crypto-Jewish artisan who deliberately mixed images of the birth of Jesus and the rescue of Moses.

The Maritime Museum (Museu da Marinha) that occupies the monastery’s north and west wings includes tributes to some of the Jewish scientists who played a key role in the age of discovery. Amid the paintings, ship models and armaments is the world’s largest collection of astrolabes, the instrument that enabled navigators to ascertain their position according to celestial bodies. Before its use, ships always kept land in sight. The astrolabe was perfected by the astronomer Abraham Zacuto, who fled from Spain to Portugal in 1492 and was immediately appointed court astronomer. Zacuto personally instructed Vasco da Gama’s sailors in the use of the astrolabe and his maritime charts before they made their first voyage to India. The Maritime Museum also displays a copy of the Treatise on the Sphere, the work that earned the mathematician Pedro Nunes the title “father of cartography.” Lisbon’s main synagogue, Shaare Tikva, is located a few blocks from the Marquês de Pombal Square, at Rua Alexandre Herculano 59. Built in 1902, it is a white-stone structure set behind a nondescript gate. The sanctuary is small and magnificent. Stone pillars support the wooden women’s gallery and wooden pews flank the central bima. On the eastern wall a stone arch sweeps above the Aron Kodesh.

Shaare Tikva is home to Lisbon’s Sefardim, who constitute the vast majority of the Jewish population. The synagogue has regular holiday and Shabbat services, but tourists often help make a minyan.

Lisbon’s other congregation, Ohel Jacob, is at Avenida Elias Garcia 110, on the second floor of a rundown building. The synagogue occupies a three-floor apartment with peeling paint, exposed pipes and a threadbare carpet, but what it lacks in charm it makes up in soul. Spiritual home to Lisbon’s dwindling Ashkenazic population, in recent years it has been infused with life by anousim, who now account for about a third of the congregation. Services are irregular, so it’s best to call in advance.

Beyond Lisbon:

There are places of Jewish interest all over Portugal, but unless you have unlimited time you’ll have to be selective.

An hour to the northeast is Tomar, a charming city with narrow, flower-lined streets around its central square, Praça da Republica. The old Jewish quarter is one block from the square on Rua Dr. Joachim Jacinto. The stone street is lined with two- and three-story houses adorned with iron railings and overhanging roof tiles. At No. 73 is the oldest synagogue in Portugal, built in 1438. Behind a plain white façade, the small sanctuary is as simple as it is beautiful. Its four stone columns stand for the Matriarchs of Israel and its 12 capitals stand for the tribes of Israel. High up in the four corners of the room are clay pots, which were a traditional method for improving acoustics.

The building is now home to the Abraham Zacuto Luso-Hebraic Museum, which houses an eclectic collection of cornerstones and tombstones, ritual objects, paintings and testimonials from visitors. The caretaker, Luis Vasco, a retired mariner and descendant of crypto-Jews, is always on hand to greet visitors. There are two or three religious services per year in the sanctuary. In 1985, the community’s mikve was discovered in a room next to the sanctuary. Porto: Three-and-a-half hours north of Lisbon is Portugal’s second largest city, Porto—though local residents of the commercial hub concede nothing to the capital. Spared by the earthquake that destroyed much of Lisbon, Porto’s old city is intact, and with it the streets that were once home to the Jewish community. There may be few signs of that long-ago presence, but a visitor armed with a detailed map can find the sites. Among the formerly Jewish quarters are the area near the foot of Rua da Vitória, near the Church of Nossa Senhora da Vitória; Rua Santa Ana, a narrow medieval-looking street of yellow façades, flowers and hanging laundry that was the city’s first Jewish quarter; Rua da Alfândega, where many Jews had shops and warehouses; Rua do Monte de Judeus (Street of the Jews’ Hill); and Rua de Miragaia.

It was in northern Portugal that the largest numbers of secret Jews lived, and Porto was the center of a modest revival that began in the 1920’s under the leadership of an army captain, Arturo Carlos de Barros Basto. Barros Basto tried to convince Crypto-Jews to come out into the open. He left behind a small community almost entirely descended from Crypto-Jews, and the magnificent Kadoorie Synagogue at Rua de Guerra Junqueiro 340 (226-092-789).

Set in a large garden dominated by towering palms, the synagogue is a square stone building with an entrance made up of a series of arches. The grand interior, under a huge cupola, is marked by azuleijos—the tiles for which Portugal is famous. While blue tiles line the side walls, the striking eastern wall features arching gold tiles in arabesque patterns above an ark of wooden doors. Just above the ark is a large roseate Star of David. Given the size of the community (only about 35 Jews live in Porto), there is rarely a minyan, but the synagogue often hosts classes from area schools.

Belmonte:

Only a fraction of Portugal’s secret Jews joined Barros Basto, and there are thousands of people in the mountainous northeast who, at the very least, know they are of Jewish descent. This past year the municipal museum in the city of Guarda mounted a lavish exhibit on the city’s Jewish past, on Jewish culture and the history of the Inquisition. The exhibit is being held over through December 2000 and parts of it will become the nucleus for a regional Jewish museum, which will have branches in Guarda, Covilhã and Belmonte.

Belmonte is the spiritual center of Crypto-Jewry, the place where an entire community kept large parts of its faith intact and, after 500 years, returned en masse.

The main thing of Jewish interest in Belmonte is the people (see page 18). The new synagogue, a striking building of white stone with a red-tiled roof, is at the edge of the old Jewish quarter. In the summer there are services every night and there are Shabbat and holiday services throughout the year. Though the community is trying to raise money for a new rabbi, the services are ably led by its members. Call 275-913-157 for information; it’s best to have someone nearby who can speak Portuguese.

(Printed with permission from Alan Tigay -Hadassah Magazine)

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