THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF PORTUGAL (1)

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The Jews Of Portugal: The Modern Day Miracle (Part One)

By: Shoshana Matzner Bekerman

The small Jewish community of Lisbon recently celebrated Chanukah with a major community event, which took on a special meaning for them. The Jews in Portugal (similar to the history of the Jews of Spain) experienced a Golden Age and periods of unspeakable cruelty and persecution. The story of Chanukah is especially meaningful to the Jews of Portugal who are witnessing the revival of Jewish life and the restoration of the central synagogue in Lisbon (Shaarei Tikvah) after centuries of persecution and deportation since the Inquisition.

Early History

Legends tell that Jews first came to the Iberian Peninsula during the reign of King Solomon or in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Jews lived and remained active in social and commercial life of the peninsula during the Visigoth and Muslim periods of occupation, fifth-to-eighth century C.E. Several important Jewish communities were already active when the kingdom of Portugal was founded in the 12th century.

During the first dynasty, Jews enjoyed relative protection from the crown. The crown recognized the Jewish community as a distinct legal entity and appointed specific rulers to adjudicate their cases. King Affonso Henriques (1139-85) entrusted Yahia ben Yahi III, a Jew, with the role of royal tax collector and supervisor; Yahia be Yahi III also became the first chief rabbi of the Portuguese Jewish community. Yahia ben Yahi’s grandson, Jose ben Yahi was appointed High Steward of the Realm, by Henriques’ successor, King Sancho I (1185-1211).

Tensions arose between members of the Jewish community that chose to remain faithful to their religion and the local clergy and middle/lower classes. The clergy wanted to invoke restrictions of the Lateran Council against the Jews, but King Dinis (1279-1235) resisted and reassured the Jews that they did not have to pay tithes to the church.

Golden Age Of Discovery

The 13th and 14th centuries were known as Portugal’s Golden Age of Discovery, in which Jews made a major contribution to Portugal’s success. In the early 14th century, more than 200,000 Jews lived in Portugal, which was about 20 percent of the total population. Jews lived in separate quarters with their own synagogue, slaughterhouse, hospital, jails, bathhouses and other institutions. A rabbi served as the administrative and legal authority within the commune.

Portugal was home to many famous Jews during this period. In fact, Jews became the intellectual and economic elite of the country. Abraham Zacuto composed tables that provided the principal base for Portuguese navigation, including those used by Vasco Da Gama on his trip to India.

Entrance to Shaarei Tikva, Lisbon’s main synagogue –
a symbol of the revival of the Jewish community of Lisbon.

Guedelha-Master Guedelha served as rabbi, doctor and astrologer for both King Duarte and King Alfonso V. Don Isaac Abarbanel was one of the principal merchants and a member of one the most influential Jewish families in Portugal. Another figure, Jose Vizinho, served as doctor and astrologer to King Joao II. Joao II also sent the Jew, Abraham deBeja, on many voyages to the East.

In this Golden Age, it was common to see Jews adorned in silk clothing, carrying gilt swords and riding beautiful horses. They were given preferential treatment by the kings. Naturally, this state of affairs gave rise to jealousy of the Jews’ success in the peasant and middle classes. Fights between Jews and Christians became more common after the influx of Jews from Spain into Portugal, in 1391.

Inquisition And Expulsion

The history of the Jews of Portugal is perhaps best illustrated by the memorial service that members of Portugal’s Jewish community held in a downtown Lisbon square − to mark the 500th anniversary of a massacre of thousands of Jews in the Portuguese capital’s streets. About 50 members of Lisbon’s Jewish community estimated to number around 1,000 gathered at dusk for the re-enactment of Manuel’s edict next to the Maria II National Theater, which was built on the site of an old Inquisition court. Chronicles from the time recount that at least 2,000 Jews were butchered and burnt alive when Catholic crowds, incited by a small group of priests, ran amok for three days in 1506.

Lisbon’s main synagogue Shaarei Tikva, recently renovated in the spirit of Nes Chanukah.

The solemn commemorations were the culmination of a process begun by former President Mario Soares in 1988, when he first apologized to Jews for centuries of persecution by the Grand Inquisition. Events included the inauguration of a synagogue in the small eastern town of Belmonte, where Jews secretly preserved their religion and traditions for centuries, held at Lisbon’s Maria II National Theater. Then, speaking to a packed Parliament, Portugal’s President Sampaio said the expulsion of Portugal’s Jews was an “iniquitous act with deep and disastrous consequences” for Portugal, which at the time, was one of Europe’s richest and most powerful nations.

Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Vera Jardim called the expulsion of Portugal’s Jews “a black piece of our history.” The state, he said, owed Jews “moral reparation” for centuries of “brutal persecution, deaths at the stake ... and confessions and abjurations obtained by torture.”

The 1496 expulsion was politically motivated. Manuel saw a chance of ruling the whole Iberian Peninsula by marrying Spain’s princess Isabella. Her parents, the fervent “Catholic kings” Ferdinand and Isabella, had already deported Spain’s Jews four years earlier, and would only bless the marriage if Manuel followed suit. About 60,000 Spanish Jews who had taken refuge in Portugal under Manuel’s pragmatic cousin Joao II, prepared to flee. But Manuel, anxious not to lose a pool of talent that had helped improve the technology and cartography used by Vasco de Gama and other Portuguese discoverers, cut a last-minute deal. Jews would be allowed to stay another 20 years if they converted to Christianity. But that did not always help. The Portuguese Inquisition, at times crueler than its Spanish counterpart, persecuted, tortured and burned at the stake tens of thousands of Jews.

Attempting to evade the Inquisition, many Portuguese Marrano families fled to Amsterdam, Salonika and other places across the Old and New worlds. In 1654, 23 Portuguese Jews arrived in New Amsterdam (New York) and became the first Jewish settlers in the United States. The stream of refugees did not stop until the end of the Inquisition in the late 18th century. The last public auto-da-fe took place in 1765; however, the Inquisition was not formally disbanded until after the liberal revolt in 1821.

Lisbon’s main synagogue Shaarei Tikva, view from the Women’s balcony.

Around 1800, Portugal decided to “invite Jews” back into the country and reverse Portugal’s economic decline. The first Jewish settlers to come were British. Tombstones, inscribed in Hebrew and dating back to 1804, can be found in a corner of the British cemetery in Lisbon. Other Jewish immigrants came from Morocco, Tangiers and Gibraltar.

In 1892, the Jewish community was granted official recognition, and the Shaarei Tikvah synagogue was built in Lisbon. However, the synagogue was not allowed to face the street. In 1912, the new Portuguese Republic reaffirmed the community’s rights. The Jewish community was able to maintain places of worship, a cemetery and a chevra kadisha (burial society) and could slaughter animals in accordance to Jewish law, register births, deaths, and marriages and collect charity. Conversions to Catholicism, however, were still frequent in the 1920’s, splitting families; this tendency declined by the 1950’s.

Jewish Renaissance And Contemporary Jewish Life In Portugal

Interview with Esther Muznik, Spokeswoman and Vice President of the Jewish Community of Portugal:

Mrs. Esther Muznik, the dynamic spokeswoman and vice president of the Jewish community of Portugal is a remarkable figure in the Lisbon Jewish community.

Mrs. Muznik was the instrumental force behind the restoration and renovation of the Shaarei Tikvah synagogue in Lisbon. Her current activities include lecturing on the Jewish history of Portugal in the University of Lisbon, editing Tikva, the magazine of the Jewish community, and helping to organize the various activities of the Comunidad Israelita de Lisboa – the Jewish community of Lisbon.

Mrs. Muznik emphasizes the wide scope and dynamic nature of the activities of the Jewish community center of Lisbon, which include: courses available for children, youth and adults in Ivrit and conversation; Daf HaYom shiurim for men; preparation for bar and bat mitzvah; study groups in Kabbalah, Jewish philosophy, parshat ha’shavua, mussar (messilat yesharim), and basic concepts of Judaism and Halachah.

Mrs. Muznik notes that the Jewish community does not currently have a chief rabbi. However, tefillot are held regularly at the synagogue, and the community center, which is based in the Shaarei Tikvah Synagogue, conducts activities and programs for all Jewish holidays, as well as Yom HaShoah (which takes on a special meaning in Portugal), and Yom Haatzmaut.

Mrs. Muznik is especially proud of the activities of the youth movement Dor Chadash, initiated five years ago to assure that the Jewish youth have a proper framework to form their Jewish identity. One of the recent developments in the community was the opening in 2004 of the Maccabi Country Club in Lisbon (founded among others, by Arnaldo Grossman, who arrived in Lisbon from Brazil in 1989 to establish a real estate company in Lisbon. He became one of the most successful businessmen in his field by introducing the use of the Internet to the R. E. business in Portugal.) The Maccabi club enables the Portuguese Jewish youth and adults to associate with other Jewish communities and clubs around the world – especially the Spanish Maccabi club which has become sort of a “sister club.” Mrs. Muznik helps organize the joint activities as a way for the Jewish youth of Portugal and Spain to maintain close ties and strengthen their Jewish identity and feeling of solidarity.

When asked about the source of her motivation for community service, Mrs. Muznik replies that her grandfather came to Portugal from Warsaw in the 1920’s to serve as a chazan for the community. Her mother’s side originally came from Berdichev. Her strong Jewish background is the driving force that guides her spirit in energizing the reviving Jewish community of Portugal.

This Chanukah, the Jewish community in Lisbon currently has reached out to Jewish communities around the world, to seek help in restoring the religious Judaica items for the renovated main synagogue Shaarei Tikvah. Details are available for those interested in helping at: www.cilisboa.org/abt_donat.htm