Portugal - Portuguese Jewish History

It was now Sunday morning and we were beginning our exploration of hilltop towns that were places of refuge for Jews fleeing Spain in 1492.

We are travelling by car from Porto eastward towards the mountain towns of Trancoso, Guarda and Belmonte; and then later on Sunday we will make our way back to the coast and the walled city of Obidos. It is an ambitious travel day, packed with tours in three small towns and a lot of driving. 

Later in the week, we will travel further south to the resort of Cascais; and finally to the capital city of Lisbon for our second Shabbat. It is here that we will meet the JRoots group from England and begin 4 days of intensive Jewish Portuguese history as we make our way back up to Porto where we began our adventure. 

Our friends, Irving and Ruchama Alter will also be part of the group tour and as it would have been impossible to arrive here in time from Israel, they will arrive on Thursday afternoon and together we will spend Friday touring Jewish Lisbon and Shabbat with the community in Lisbon.

This posting which unfortunately will be picture free, will be an attempt to present a brief history of Portuguese Jewry. 

But before we get to the history, a few short observations.

1) We are amazed by the roads in Portugal. Wherever you go, you are on a modern 4 - 6 lane motorway. They are all toll roads and many electronic, like Toronto's highway 407, and so we opted for an "easypass" system in our rental car so that we will not have to stop at any booth to actually pay a toll. It just seems that there are expressways within a mile of wherever you may be in the country. 

2) Waze is used extensively here, and it covers the entire country efficiently. As one who loves maps and fought for a long time against being controlled by "apps", I have conceded and now admit that without Waze, I am lost. However, I must say that I still like to look at a real map so that I not only know where I am going but where I am in relation to the sea, what direction am I travelling etc. 

3) We have found that things are relatively inexpensive here. Hotels, Airbnb, etc. are reasonable. Supermarket prices are low. We have walked out of supermarkets and talk for a while as to how we can have so many bags with so low a bill. Sobeys....please take note!

4) Gas prices are high (€1.50 a litre) but distances are short, so it is a trade off. 

5) People are friendly and eager to help.

6) Portugal has embraced energy conservation and is a world leader in renewable energy – by July 2014 around 70 percent of its energy came from renewable sources such as wind, hydro and solar power. There are windmills dotting the countryside wherever you drive. Innovative projects include a floating wind farm (the WindFloat) and WaveRoller, which converts the movement of ocean waves to energy and electricity.

7) On the coast, some of the best water surfing is found here. Not that we are surfers, but we marvel that a year ago, a record 100 foot wave was surfed not far from where we will stay in Cascais, a suburb of Lisbon.

8) As far as we can tell, and from most of the people with whom we have spoken, there is no antisemitism in this country. Certainly no one has commented or even looked at my kippah. And as well, we are told by everyone we meet that this is a very safe country....we certainly feel safe walking around.

At the same time, the shuls have police and guards outside; But I have worn a kippah everywhere and have felt totally safe.

9) There are very few immigrants in the country. It is estimated that over 90% of the citizens are native Portuguese. This is not due to an anti immigrant policy but rather due to the fact that immigrants can get much better social assistance in countries like Germany, Holland and the Scandinavian countries. People here have told us that they would welcome immigrants but instead, the immigrants choose to go to the countries where they get a much better deal. 

10) There is much more smoking in this country than in most countries that we have visited. After not being around it for a while, it really stands out.

11) We will deal with specific Jewish observations as we post during our travels. But as a general comment if you are considering a visit here as an independent traveler, there are no regular kosher restaurants (there are two hotels, one in Porto and one in Belmonte that will prepare a meal with 24 hour notice for you), so if you come here without a group tour dealing with meals, you would have to travel with basics like a soup pot and fry pan and stay in self catering apartments as we have done. Packaged kosher food is available in both Porto and Lisbon but in limited supply and very limited locations. Kosher bread is only available in Porto. More on that later. 

And now for the history lesson.....

As we have travelled around for the past week, we have heard the same story told over and over, by people we met in the shul in Porto and by the tour guides who we hired to show us Jewish sites in 4 different communities. And while there are slight differences in the story, what emerges is a history like many other places, where success and sadness go hand in hand. 

Legends say that Jews first came to the Iberian peninsula during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BCE or maybe even beforehand during the reign of King Solomon in 900s BCE. 

During the 12th century, there were several established Jewish communities that enjoyed relative protection from the crown. As early as the 12th Century, Yahia ben Yahi III (also known as Yahya bin Yaish) was appointed the first chief rabbi of the community and official royal tax collector and supervisor by King Alfonso Henriques. 

Jews thrived in the 13th and 14th centuries during the Golden Age of Discovery, making major contributions to Portugal's success and emergence as a world power. 

With the advent of the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, and the edict to convert or leave, many chose to leave and because of the closeness of Portugal, there was a major influx of Jewish immigration here with reports of up to 150,000 Jews entering the country seeking refuge from the horrors of the Inquisition, such that Jews composed 20 - 25% of the total population in the country; likely one of the largest concentrations of Jews in a country (other than Israel) in history. 

Portugal was home to many famous Jews during this period. Rabbi Abraham Zacuto wrote tables that provided the principal base for Portugese navigation, including those used by Vasco Da Gama on his trip to India. Guedelha-Master Guedelha served as a rabbi, doctor and astrologer for both King Duarte and King Alfonso V. Rabbi Don Isaac Abravanel was one of the principal merchants and a member of one the most influential Jewish families in Portugal.

Jews prospered here and King Joao II of Portugal allowed them to enter because he was preparing for war against the Moors and wanted to take advantage of their wealth and expertise in weapon-making.

Jews became the intellectual and economic elite of the country. Jews were involved in all aspects of the Portuguese naval explorations, from financing the sailing fleets to making scientific discoveries in the fields of mathematics, medicine and cartography. Many were employed as physicians and astronomers as well royal treasurers, tax collectors and advisors. 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.

In spite of its small size and population in comparison to the great land powers of Europe, Portugal was able to acquire an overseas empire of vast proportions, the first in world history to reach global dimensions. As examples, during Manuel's reign in the late 15th century, the world witnessed the discovery of a maritime route to India (1498) by Vasco da Gama; the discovery of Brazil by Pedro Álvares Cabral (1500); and the establishment of monopolies on maritime trade routes (1503 to 1515) to the Indian Ocean for the benefit of Portugal. 

But among the peasant and middle classes, jealousy of the Jews' success resulted in a rise in anti Jewish sentiment. And while King Joao II wanted the Jews to remain in his kingdom so he could make use of their wealth, ingenuity and influence, he only granted a small number of them permanent status with the balance being declared slaves, with their children forcibly snatched from them to be baptized and raised by Christian families. 

When King Joao II died in 1494, Manuel I was named king and granted freedom to the Jews. 

His relationship with the Portuguese Jews started out well. At the outset of his reign, he released all the Jews who had been made captive during the reign of Joao II. Unfortunately for the Jews, he decided that he wanted to marry Infanta Isabella of Aragon, (daughter to Ferdinand and Isabella). Ferdinand and Isabella were the authors of the Inquisition in 1492 and would never allow their daughter to marry the king of a country that still tolerated the Jews presence and as a result made as a condition of marriage the requirement that Manuel I persecute, exile or force conversion on the Jews of Portugal.

Manuel agreed to this condition but was torn between his marriage conditions and his desire to have the Jews stay and continue to contribute to the country's economy. 

And so he made it hard for Jews to leave by naming Lisbon as the only port of exit. And in order to keep as many Jews in the country as possible, he really did not give them the option of leaving the country, but instead tried to convince many of them to convert. 

In December 1496, it was decreed that all Jews either convert to Christianity or leave the country without their children. However, those expelled could only leave the country in ships specified by the king. When those who chose expulsion arrived in the courtyard of Dos Estaus Palace in Rossio Square, located about 1 mile from where I am writing this blog, they were met by clerics and soldiers who tried to use coercion and promises in order to baptize them and prevent them from leaving the country. But they were not enough boats to carry the estimated 20,000 Jews who chose to be exiled and in this way Manuel showed that he was keeping his promise to his bride and at the same time found a way to keep the Jews in Portugal. 

In this way, the Inquisition in Portugal was far worse than that of Spain. In Spain you were given the clear option of convert or leave and many thousands left. In Portugal, while on paper, we had the option to leave, the actual fact was that devious Manuel never gave our ancestors that option, and the only options were convert or die. 

This technically ended the presence of Jews in Portugal. Afterwards, all converted Jews and their descendants would be referred to as "New Christians", and to show just how much the Portuguese rulers really wanted to keep the Jews in his land, Crypto Jews (as the New Christians were called) were given a grace period of thirty years during which no inquiries into their faith would be allowed; this was later extended to end in 1534. 

This grace period was not a time without fear and pogroms, however. There were major incidents of terror during these thirty years, such as the Lisbon Massacre of 1506, when anywhere from 3,000 to 8,000 "New Christians" were massacred by raging mobs spurred on by the Catholic Church. And although King Manuel executed 45 of the main culprits who had incited the mob, to show his "protection of the secret Jews", Crypto Jews increased their methods of hiding their secret observances as Jewish life was forced underground. Understandably, Jewish observance waned and over a period of time, the traditions were something that the grandparents did but without formal Jewish life and education, real identification as Jews began to disappear amongst the vast majority of Secret Jews. 

The 1531 Lisbon earthquake occurred in the Kingdom of Portugal on the morning of 26 January 1531. The earthquake and the numerous subsequent tsunamis resulted in approximately 30,000 deaths. A rumor spread, apparently encouraged by the friars of Santarém, that the disaster was divine punishment and that the Jewish community was to blame, resulting in popular support for a Portuguese Inquisition. 

Pope Clement VII authorized the Inquisition and the first of many auto-da-fe (trial) and public burnings took place in Lisbon on September 20, 1540.

The right to seize and confiscate the property of the accused led to the arrest of every prominent "New Christian" family. Once arrested, death was only escaped if one admitted to Judaizing and implicated friends and family. Other sentences included public admission of the alleged sins, the obligatory wearing of a special penitential habit and burning at the stake.

Attempting to evade the Inquisition, many Portugese Crypto Jewish families fled to Amsterdam, Salonika and other places across the Old and New worlds. In 1654, 23 Portugese 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-de-fe took place in 1765; however, the Inquisition was not formally disbanded until after the liberal revolt in 1821.

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, written 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. Official recognition to the Jewish community was not granted until 1892. After granting the community recognition, Shaare Tikvah synagogue was built in Lisbon in the early 1900's, however, because of lingering anti Jewish sentiment and laws, the synagogue was not allowed to face the street.

In 1912, the new Portugese Republic reaffirmed the community’s rights. The Jewish community was able to maintain places of worship, a cemetery and a hevra kadisha (burial society) and could slaughter animals in accordance to Jewish law, register births, deaths, and marriages and collect charity.

In recent years, Portugal has become the first nation after Israel to adopt a Law of Return for Jews who can show Portuguese Jewish heritage. And while few people seized the opportunity at first, with Brexit and the rise in Anti Semitism in Europe, there is now an increase in Jewish immigration or at least registration of Portuguese citizenship. 

Portugal and Israel had low level ties in the 1950's. In 1959 the Bank of Portugal and the Bank of Israel established financial relations. Diplomatic relations were not established though until 1977. 

That's it for this post, next post will include our all day Sunday visit to Trancoso, Belmonte and Guarda.

All the best

Fran and David