Switzerland and Austria - The Third Great Grandparent Trip - Arrival in Zurich and on to Davos for Shabbat

This is our third Grandparent - Grandchild trip. A number of years ago, we came up with the idea of travelling with grandchildren when they reach mid teen years ( 15 - 17 years) as a way of bonding with our grandchildren. 

Our first trip saw us take two grandchildren from Israel and two from Toronto to Tuscany. It was a great trip. We rented a villa and because there was minimal kosher facilities available, we all joined together to prepare delicious meals from whatever fresh ingredients were available. We toured all over Tuscany, visiting many hilltop walled villages, seeing the leaning tower of Pisa and touring whatever Jewish sites we could find.

Our second trip involved three grandchildren from Toronto and we flew to Panama. We saw the canal, visited a native community, enjoyed some of the finest kosher restaurants around, spent Shabbat in the middle of Panama's amazing Jewish community and then flew to Boquete in the hills where we spent the better part of a week zip lining, white water rafting and hiking through the rainforests and coffee plantations. 

This trip sees three cousins, Eden from Israel, Kyra and Emunah from Toronto joining us for two weeks in Switzerland and Austria and rather than revealing our itinerary at this time, will leave it for you to read our blog and join us on our journey. 

We were scheduled to leave Toronto at 6:30 PM Thursday evening on an Air Canada Flight to Zurich, with granddaughters Kyra and Emunah. Eden, was scheduled to leave Israel at 5 AM and if all would proceed according to plan, we should all meet at 8:00 AM in the Zurich airport near the car rental booths. 

But as luck would have it, our Air Canada plane had a mechanical problem and we finally pulled back from the gate at 9 PM, 2 and a half hours late. Eden's ElAl flight was on time and so instead of us waiting for her for 20 minutes, she had to wait for our arrival for over two hours.

It is obviously getting a lot easier to plan a rendezvous of this kind than it was the first time we went on a Grandparent trip with grandchildren from both hemispheres. Back then, no one had a device and you had to hope that everyone would find their way to the selected meeting point. But today, with Whatsapp and Messenger, we can pretty much be in contact with each other, as long as there is wifi access in the facility and most major airports provide wifi connectivity. 

And so as soon as we saw that we would be late leaving, we began sending messages to Eden coordinating exactly where we would meet when we finally arrived in Zurich. We decided that since we were flying to the same terminal, that we would meet at the exit doors from baggage pickup. As soon as we landed, we got a whatsapp from Eden telling us that she had arrived and that we should just exit the baggage area and she would be waiting for us.

We went straight up to Europcar and collected our van which would serve as our mode of transportation for the next two weeks.

Our initial plan was to drive into Zurich and shop at Koscher City for our kosher supplies. But because of our extended delay, we changed our plans and headed straight from the airport to Davos. Fortunately, we had brought enough frozen cooked vacuum packed meat and chicken with us, and our research had shown that there was an extensive list put out by the Jewish community in Zurich that highlighted the many products available in the supermarket, that were certified kosher even without a recognizable symbol. And because Davos is the home in the summer for many Orthodox tourists, we were told that local supermarkets there carry many kosher products and freshly baked breads for our Shabbat table. 

The weather was beautiful and during the two hour drive to Davos we saw glimpses of the beautiful mountains, lakes and green coloured meadows that would be with us for the duration of our trip. 

We arrived in Davos which is a resort town deep in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. In the brilliant sunshine when we arrived, Davos is breathtaking. During the three week summer period between Tisha B'Av and Rosh Chodesh Elul, hundreds of chassidic families from Israel, Europe and North America come here for the clean air, and beautiful scenery. And as soon as we entered the town, we could see many groups of chassidim walking through town, shopping for Shabbat. 

We found the apartment complex where we were staying and were very satisfied with the two storey, three bedroom home that we rented for the weekend. We unpacked, and headed out to the local grocery to stock up on food for Shabbat. 

We went to the EuroSpar grocery store that we were told carried the largest variety of Kosher products. We were not disappointed. There was meat, fish, chicken, packages Israeli goods, local cheeses with hashgacha, wine, breads, etc., all is displays labelled "Kosher". There were families shopping for Shabbat and many stopped to point out to us which items in the regular supermarket section were acceptable according to the Swiss Kosher List. As well, we were able to confirm the minyan times in the local Shuls.

We returned to our apartment and our "head chef Eden" with her sous chefs, Kyra and Emunah, along with their consulting chefs Fran and David, swung into action to prepare the delicious meals that we would enjoy over Shabbat. As well, everyone had time to prepare for Shabbat and then when I noticed a number of chassidim walking within our complex, I spoke with them and discovered that there was even a minyan in a garage in the complex, literally 30 metres from our front door. Huge bonus as rain was called for on Friday night and Shabbat morning. The only downside was that there was no women's section and therefore I was the only one going to shul this Shabbat.

Davening was long, with a very, very long communal rendition of a tradition chassidic niggun sung to Lecho Dodi, and a Baal Tefillah who apparently did not realize that we were running on very little sleep. I was the only one there without a shtreimel, the traditional fur hat worn by chassidim. I was also the only one there wearing a watch, as the rest considered wearing a watch as carrying and therefore violating the Sabbath and its restrictions on carrying in a place with no eiruv (halachic boundary). I discovered this as people were coming over periodically to ask me the time, wanting to make sure that their prayers were offered in the appropriate time period as set by Halacha or Jewish law. 

When I returned "home", (and it was already raining) we sang Shalom Aleichem, made kiddush and sat down to a meal of delicious home cooked soup, BBQ chicken (which we had brought with us from Sobey's), a variety of salads that we had made, vegetarian schnitzel, and dessert (our daughter Chavi's delicious cookies flown in specially from Israel!:-). We sang zemirot using our Let's Bench sheets made exclusively for this trip and Eden treated us to a dvar Torah. 

A great way to begin Shabbat and now tired after long flights and a long day, we all happily accepted Shabbat Menucha or rest that we all so richly deserved. 

Shabbat morning, it was overcast and the beautiful mountains that we had seen when we arrived were now no longer visible, completely enveloped in heavy clouds which hovered over the valley. 

While everyone was still catching up on their sleep, I left for the very short walk to shul and again the style of morning prayer was very chassidic and somewhat drawn out.

I returned to the apartment and we made kiddush and decided that since it had stopped raining and since it was going to be a very long Shabbat day, that Fran and I would take a walk into the centre of town to explore the area. Along the way, we met various groups of chassidim who were returning from their prayers at a number of the local "three week" temporary synagogues set up in town to accommodate the summer visitors. 

There was a large group in the Derby Hotel, a strictly kosher establishment that opens just for this period. And even though shul was over by this time, we walked over to another shul a few streets away, because we were told that when we would return to Davos the next Shabbat, it would be the only operating shul in the area, as with Rosh Chodesh Elul occurring this week, the rest of the entire infrastructure would be disassembled until summer 2018. Very interesting that all of this is set up for such a short operating season. 

We had a good one hour walk and tho it was threatening, the rains held off and we returned to a wonderful lunch of gefilte fish, herring that we made on Friday, roast beef, lots of salads, hummus with chick peas, etc. A meal that we all enjoyed and again, lots of zemirot. We ended our early afternoon with a few spirited games of Bananagrams and then the girls went off for a hike into the hills and we retired to bed for a relaxing Shabbat nap.

The rest of the day was filled with reading, Seudah Shlishit (the third Shabbat meal) and then we ended Shabbat with Mincha, Maariv, and Havdalah. It was a very enjoyable beginning to what is hopefully a memorable grandchildren trip.

And before heading off to bed, we packed everything up because on Sunday morning we were planning an early 7 AM start for our 5 hour drive into the Austrian Alps. 

More to come.

All the best,

Fran and David

Crypto Jewish Customs

During our trip and our research, we either read about or were told about various customs that developed within the Crypto Jewish communities that existed in Spain, Portugal, parts of Central America and in New Mexico. 

The motivation for these customs was to a) keep the Jewish tradition alive or b) to make it appear to the Christian neighbour that the Crypto Jew was following non Jewish behaviour so that he/she not be discovered and reported to the Church authorities. 

As a result of b) above, essential Jewish practices like "brit milah" (circumcision), "mikvah" (ritual baths) and "shechitah" (ritual slaughter of animals) were not practiced since the Inquisition. They were too visible to the general public and you risked burning at the cross for performing these halachic rituals. 

But where possible, the Crypto Jews secretly or quietly observed Judaism inwardly while appearing to be full Christians in public.

Marriages took place in the Church, but if the one performing the ceremony was likewise a Crypto Jew, he would quietly say "Em nome de Deus de Abrahao, Isaac e Jacob, eu vos uno, Cumpri vos a Sua bencao";  "in the name of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I unite you with His blessing".

The Hebrew language disappeared except for the name for God "A-Do-Nai". 

Entering a church, Crypto Jews were known to have quietly whispered preceding Mass,  "I do not worship wood and stone, only the God of Israel". 

The men and women prayed separately, generally in services held in the open air out of town. The services were generally led by the women.

One of our guides told us that his great grandmother would always cover her eyes when passing a church, not wanting to recognize the church that had taken away her religion.

The same guide told us about a curious cleaning custom. When sweeping the dust on the floor, you always swept toward the centre of the room and then carried the collected dirt out of the room in a dustpan, so as to not disrespect the location of a mezuza. It was bad enough that you could not proudly have a mezuza adorning your doorpost, to sweep dust past the location where the mezuza should have been would have been adding insult to injury.

Candles were lit on Friday nights but were usually lit out of sight, away from windows. There were special clay or metal candle holders that had shields around the flame with a slot to allow oxygen to keep the flame alive. A large replica of this candle holder is now the "ner tamid" (eternal light) in the synagogue in Belmonte.

There are also stories about lighting 8 candles during the period around Chanukah or Xmas, again in the cellar of the home hidden away from sight.

There is a popular toy called "rapa" (the "r" is a harsh Hebrew "chet" sound) which is exactly like a dreidel except for the English letters RTDP on the four sides. We had read about this before going to Portugal and were determined to find someone selling these ultimate Portuguese Jewish souvenirs. We found a store called "A Vida Portuguese" which has a number of branches in Lisbon and Porto. They specialize in specific Portuguese traditional items. The branch we visited in Lisbon had a good supply. We then found another similar store (not the same chain) in Porto with a good supply. So we asked the salespeople in the store if they knew the rules for playing with this toy. They said that it is played around Xmas time by children and it is a pretend gambling game with very similar rules to ours. Everyone is given a supply of beads or candy. They spin the "rapa"; the R means take all, the D means leave everything in, the T means take one, etc. When I suggested to her that we have a similar game called dreidel, she said that she did not know that but that it did not surprise her because of the long history of Jews in Portugal. As an aside, we did not meet anyone in Portugal who questioned or made light of the Jewish history of Portugal. Everyone seemed to have this warm fuzzy feeling, almost to the point of making it feel cool to have Jewish blood in their DNA. 

There is a traditional Portuguese sausage that is made from pork. A "Jewish version" of this sausage called Alheira using chicken or lamb developed so that it would appear to the Christians that the secret Jews were eating pork, and therefore fully converted. That version is still available in the meat stores in Portugal.

They only ate fish that had scales. 

We heard a number of different versions of how Crypto Jews observed mezuza. They obviously could not have mezuzot on their doorposts. So instead, they carried the mezuza in their pocket in a small wooden holder. When approaching the door, they would take the mezuza holder in the palm of their hand and touch it to the doorpost and then kiss their hand. Another version of this story was the "flute" that held the mezuza scroll 
and it would be then touched to the doorpost.

To the left is a picture of a pocket mezuza.

Many stories abound about Crypto Jews who had the custom of wearing special clothing on Friday nights and Saturdays, or women who remembered their grandmothers who had designated Friday as the day to clean their homes or do the wash, "l'kovod Shabbat", in honour of Shabbat. 

Pesach was observed annually as Santa Festa Day and when we went to Castel Da Vide, we were told by the former mayor of the city (who has definite Jewish ancestry) about the annual slaughtering of sheep and baking of unleavened bread that had been going on for years at the time of Pesach. He described it as a Christian - Pagan - Jewish ritual which takes place in the town square every year. Last year 4000 sheep were slaughtered and the festivities go on for 7 days. Rabbi Raphy Garson, who led our group from JRoots joked that these people don't keep a second day Yom Tov (only seven days) and they have matzah and schwarma as their seudah ...what could be better?

In Belmonte we were told how they would bake matzot on the roof of their homes, as clay tiles were good as a base for baking; they would then lift up the tiles and hide the matzot under the Spanish tiles where they would stay until Pesach.

When it came to Yom Kippur, they would observe it on the 11th day of Tishrei, so as not to alert the Christians that they were observing Yom Kippur. 

One guide told us that his family even today breaks the fast at the end of Yom Kippur with a festive meal and with a deck of cards at everyone's place setting. This was done because in times past, the church's secret police would raid suspected Secret Jews' homes to see if they were having a meal to break the fast. Just below everyone's place setting was a drawer, and if they heard the knock on the door, they quickly shoved their dishes and cutlery into the drawer and pulled out the cards so that it would appear that they were just assembled for a friendly game of cards.

In Belmonte, there is a special celebration of Queen Esther who is a heroine to Crypto Jews for two reasons. First, because her history of observing Judaism in secret in Achashverosh's palace mirrored theirs; and second because as a woman figurehead, honouring Esther honours all the women who over the years were responsible for passing down the traditions and customs to the next generation. 

Marranos practiced Judaism privately in their own homes, however, they abandoned any obvious identifying Jewish practice, such as circumcision, mikveh and the celebration of any public holiday. The celebration of Yom Kippur and Passover were done a couple days late to confuse the Inquisitors. Shabbat lamps were hidden inside clay pots, so those outside could not see the light burning. Jewish women also led prayer services, since this was the job normally performed by males.

If a community member died, a minyan gathered at the home of the families members, but made it appear as if their attendance was just done to consol the mourners and they lit candles for 7 days as a remembrance of shiva. 

We are sure that there are many more customs and different versions, but it was a fascinating study of just what lengths people would go to preserve their belief in their Jewish heritage.

All the best

Fran and David

Portugal - Portuguese Personalities

This posting will begin with the life history of a number of personalities who played major roles in the history of Portugal Jewry; and then discuss some of the customs that continue to this day which had their roots in the lives of Jews before the 1500's.  

While many people have heard about the famous Lisbon born Rabbi, scholar and financier to kings in a number of countries, Don Yitzchak Abravanel, we had never heard about these four individuals who played a major role in Portuguese Jewish history: Rabbi Abraham Zacuto, Captain Artur Carlos de Barro Basto, Aristides de Sousa Mendes and Samuel Schwartz. 

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Rabbi Avraham Zacuto was born in 1452 in Spain and is likely the only Jew to have a crater on the moon (Zagat) named after him. He was an astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and rabbi; he was a student of the Menorat Hamaor, and the author of the Sefer HaYuchsin, a historical chronicle covering the entire history of mankind from a Jewish perspective.  

After the expulsion in 1492, he fled to Lisbon. He was invited by King Joao II of Portugal to become the official Royal Astronomer and Historian and consulted with the king on the possibility of a sea route to India. 

He had developed a new type of astrolabe, which allowed for the calculation of latitude at sea and he authored a historic astronomical work, called HaChibur Hagadol which detailed 65 astronomic tables charting the sun, moon and the five planets (pictured below), which together with his new metal astrolabe revolutionized ocean travel, allowing for accurate readings anywhere on land or at sea. 

The pictures below show the wooden astrolabe that was used by the early navigators. This devise was quite inaccurate when the ship neared the equator and as such, no explorers ventured all the way to the tip of South Africa until Vasco De Gama acquired and was instructed in the proper use of Zacuto's metal astrolabe which is shown on the right. 

Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus both used Zacuto's device and his tables and as such Zacuto's works are credited with their navigational success.

The following picture is one of Zacuto's original astrolabe complete with the markings in Hebrew. 

There is even a theory that the gold background on the Portuguese flag under the coat of arms, is Zacuto's metal astrolabe. We were told this by one guide and it was denied by others. But the colour and the shape seem to indicate a globe structure similar to the astrolabe. 

There is a famous story about Columbus that involves Zacuto. While in one of the Caribbean islands with his fleet and sailors, Columbus and his crew were threatened by local native tribes. Columbus who was carrying Zacuto's astronomical tables noted that on that evening there would be a lunar eclipse and therefore warned the natives that they better treat him with respect or he would make the moon disappear. They waited and watched that evening and sure enough, the moon disappeared. By morning, Columbus and his men were revered as gods by the locals and were granted protection and safety.

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Captain Artur Carlos de Barros Basto was born in 1887 in Amarante, Portugal and died in 1961 in Porto. While still a young boy, he was told by his dying grandfather that the family had Jewish roots. This had a major impact on him and at the age of 17, he read that a synagogue was being inaugurated in Lisbon, the same shul in which we davened during our visit. 

While stationed in Lisbon for his army training, he attempted to join the shul but due to his Crypto Jewish background, was refused entry. He remained interested in Judaism and determined to examine his roots and heritage.

He entered the army and during WWI was decorated for acts of bravery and promoted to the rank of captain. 

He taught himself Hebrew and while living in Morocco, began the process of conversion, underwent circumcision and was finally accepted by the Beth Din in Tangiers. He returned to Lisbon, married a local Jewish woman, Lea Azcanot and had children and grandchildren. One of his granddaughters is the current Vice President of the Jewish Community of Porto. 

In 1921, he and his wife moved to Porto, which at the time had less than 20 Ashkenazi Jews, no formal Jewish community and no synagogue. In 1923, he formally registered the Jewish Community of Porto (Comunidade Israelite de Porto) and launched a Jewish newspaper, HaLapid, "the torch".  He opened a synagogue in a residential home in Porto and more and more people began to attend. These were not Jews but descendants of the Jews of the Inquisition days, who claimed that Jewish  customs and observances in their Christian homes over the centuries were proof of their Jewish roots. 

The existence of so many Crypto Jews attracted the attention of the Portuguese Jewish Community in London who together with Barros Basto created the Portuguese Marranos Committee aimed at identifying and integrating Portuguese citizens with Jewish roots into the Jewish community.

 In 1929 he purchased land and began raising funds to build the Mekor Haim synagogue in Porto which was completed and inaugurated in 1938. It took such a long time because they ran out of funds in the interim despite the support of the Portuguese Jewish community of London, England. However, in 1933, Laura Kadoorie, the wife of Sir Ely Kadoorie of Hong Kong, died. She was from a Portuguese Jewish family that fled in the time of the Inquisition and in her honour and memory, Sir Ely provided the funds needed to complete the project. As a result, the name Kadoorie has been associated with the shul ever since. This is the same shul in which we davened and which is the largest shul in the Iberian Peninsula. 

De Barros Basta's story does not end here. In 1937, as the shul was being completed, he was thrown out of the Portuguese army and stripped of his rank because of the sin of being too jewish, for encouraging Crypto Jews to return to their Judaism and for participating in circumcision ceremonies on returning Jews. his court-martial led the other Jews that he was helping to go underground and the shul was basically abandoned. It has a brief revival as a refugee centre for Jews fleeing the Shoah (more on that below) and then only recently has there been a major attempt at reviving the Jewish community in Porto, which is meeting with some success. 

De Barros Basta attempted to have his name cleared and became known as the Portuguese Dreyfus. He died in 1961. 

His family and the community fought for years and finally in 2012, the Portuguese parliament passed a unanimous resolution exonerating him and raising his rank to Colonel. The resolution stated that de Barros Basto " had been separated from the army due to a generic climate of animosity toward him, motivated by the fact that he was Jewish, not hiding it, and, on the contrary, showing an energetic proselytism converting Portuguese marrano Jews and their descendants". 

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Aristides de Sousa Mendes' story reminded me of the story of Japanese Consul General Sugihara, who was responsible for writing visas that saved 6000 Jews from Nazi death camps in defiance of specific orders from his government. De Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux at the time of the German invasion of France was responsible for writing 30,000 visas, passports and travel documents, 12,000 of those to Jews fleeing the death camps of the Shoah.

And yet, given the fact that he saved more Jews than Schindler or Sugihara, almost no one has ever heard of him. 

He was a career diplomat serving in Kenya, San Francisco, Zanzibar, Brazil and Antwerp, before being assigned to Bordeaux, France. He was a devout Catholic, was married and had 14 children. When the Nazis invaded France, people fled south, away from the conflict toward the region of Bordeaux, looking for a way out of the country, in the direction of Portugal; up to this point, neutral in the war.However, Antonio Salazar, the Portuguese dictator, in an attempt to appease Hitler, issued "Circular 14" which stated that "no Jews or dissidents be permitted passage to Portugal".

De Sousa Mendes was conflicted terribly. He was a devout Christian and his conscience told him this was wrong. Additionally, the Portuguese constitution clearly stated that neither religion nor political beliefs were reason to refuse entry to Portugal.

As the German army approached Paris, an estimated 6 to 10 million people packed their bags, flooded train stations and took to any form of transport to escape the Nazi onslaught. One of the refugees who fled to Bordeaux was Rabbi Chaim Hersz Kruger, with his wife and five children. Rabbi Kruger, a chassid, originally from Poland, but most recently a resident of Belgium, was befriended by De Sousa Mendes, who offered him and his family safe passage to Portugal, despite Salazar's Circular 14. Rabbi Kruger refused the offer, unless he could take all his brothers and sisters; i.e.; all the Jews who had assembled in Bordeaux looking for a way out. De Sousa Mendes was advised by his staff and by his wife to refuse Rabbi Kruger's request; defying Salazar's edict would mean total disaster for him and his entire family. But De Sousa Mendes wrote to his superiors and received the rejection letter that everyone expected.                      At this point, De Sousa Mendes traded patriotism to Portugal for something he felt more important; saving lives, and he advised Rabbi Kruger of his intention to issue as many visas as humanly possible before being stripped of his post. Rabbi Kruger went back into the city and collected passports from everyone he met so that visas could be issued. From June 12 until June 23rd, 1940, De Sousa Mendes, one of his sons, an aide and Rabbi Kruger, worked round the clock, with De Sousa Mendes signing the visas and Rabbi Kruger stamping them. 

The Portuguese government was alerted to what was occurring and immediately instructed all border crossings that no "De Sousa Mendes signed visa" be accepted as entry into Portugal. Below is a picture of one of the De Sousa Mendes signed visas. 

Rabbi Kruger and his family were among the last to leave, and when approaching the border, were denied entry. However, as in a Hollywood movie, De Sousa Mendes appeared at the same border crossing, and personally lifted the crossing barrier so that Rabbi Kruger and his family could reach safety, eventually reaching the USA.

De Sousa Mendes' story does not have a happy ending. He was stripped of his position and was forbidden any employment including his profession of practicing law in Portugal. He was denied a pension. His children were denied entry into universities and the entire family became outcasts and impoverished. 

De Sousa Mendes died in 1954, but never regretted what he had done. Before he died, the man referred to as "the Angel of Bordeaux" asked his children to try to restore his family's honour. 

In 1966 he was named by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations". In 1988, the Portuguese government dismissed all charges against him and promoted him posthumously  to the position of ambassador. 

A foundation has been established to restore his family home, to create a museum and memorial site, and to develop an archive of the many people that he saved from certain death. 

We had never heard of him before this trip and learning about this courageous person and his self sacrifice to do what was right was one of the highlights of what we learned in Portugal.

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Samuel Schwartz is another person we had never heard of before this trip and he plays an important role in the lives of the Crypto Jews of Portugal. 

Samuel was born in Poland in 1880 and died in Lisbon in 1953. He studied Civil Engineering in Paris and became a mining engineer. 

When the First World War broke out he and his wife Agatha were honeymooning in Portugal and he began work there in the tin mines in the mountains bordering Spain. 

He spoke 10 languages; Russian, Polish, German, Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and Yiddish. 

In 1917, while in Belmonte, a small mountain town, he met members of a community who he identified as Crypto Jews. They had maintained their identity in secret for over four hundred years believing in a God who would redeem his people in the end of days. They married among a small number of families to keep the Jewish chain pure; they practiced Shabbat and holidays; they kept laws of Jewish burial like the sahara and lighting a candle for 7 days of shiva; they consecrated their own marriages with the statement "In the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I commend you to His benediction"; they developed their own sausages made from chicken and rabbit called Alheira, which they passed off as pork sausages to fool the local Christians. 

Even after the Inquisition ended in 1821, they kept their beliefs and observances secretly for fear of another Inquisition and the outside influences that would destroy their traditions. 

When Schwartz met them and identified himself as Jewish, they did not believe him as they had assumed that they were the only surviving members of a dead religion. It was only after he pronounced the name of Hashem in the Shma, that they believed him. 

Even so, they stayed underground until the "carnation revolution" of 1974 that ousted the dictator Salazar and brought total democracy to Portugal.

In 1923, Schwartz went on to purchase a house that was the former site of a shul in the town of Tomar, which is now under renovation, and as such we were unable to visit it. Built between 1430 and 1460, it is one of the best preserved medieval synagogues in Portugal. Excavations in a building next to the shul revealed an ancient mikvah. Schwartz restored the building and conducted the first excavations. 

In 1939, he donated the building to the Portuguese government in return for Portuguese citizenship that provided safety for him and his family during the Shoah. Below is a picture of the interior of the Tomar Synagogue. 

The building also serves as the Abraham Zacuto Museum and contains artifacts with hebrew inscriptions from the 1300's. 

Samuel Schwartz will be remembered as the man who began the process for the return of the Jews of Belmonte to Torah Judaism. 

We hope you have enjoyed this post as much as we enjoyed doing the reading and research on these four amazing individuals.

All the best

Fran and David

Portugal - Links to Video Interview with Rabbi Salas and Joao Johanan Diogo

The following are links to 5 videos that I shot of an interview with Rabbi Elisha Salas, the Rav of the Jewish community of Belmonte, Portugal, and with Mr. Joao Johanan Diogo, the President of the Belmonte Jewish community in Portugal. This was one long discussion which I uploaded in segments because of the restrictions on length on You Tube. But they basically follow in the order in which I have placed them. The interviews were conducted in Hebrew and Portuguese and translated by Rabbi Raphael Garson, the Rav of the Elstree Borehamwood Jewish Community north of London, who directed our tour of Portugal. Rav Garson also represents JRoots, an organization that sponsors Jewish Identity visits around the world.

I hope you will find these interesting.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Portugal - Belmonte - Worth coming just for this!

After leaving our guide Bruno in the small town of Guarda, we were off to Belmonte.

Belmonte is a magical tourist destination for the Jewish traveler.

We had arranged a guided tour of Belmonte thru the local Jewish Museum and they assigned Elizabeta to be our guide. Not Jewish but certainly educated in Judaism and its traditions, she was an excellent guide.

A word about guides. We had Gonçalo in Porto, Bruno in Trancoso and Guarda, Elizabeta in Belmonte, and Paolo in Lisbon; I will list their contact info at the end of this posting. All four were excellent and all four spoke perfect English. Elizabeta was only 40 Euros, presumably because she was assigned by the Jewish Museum. The others were 4 to 5 times that amount, which I guess is the going rate. None watched the clock and all were willing to spend as much time as we wanted. Of the four, Paolo has a Jewish father and a mother who, if we understood him correctly, was a Crypto Jew and all were well informed of the history of Portugal and especially its Jewish history.

Our meeting point in Belmonte was just below the castle walls at the top of the hill. 

It was a very small village and there were few tourists around. The tourist season begins around April and ends in October. It was chancy visiting the hilltop towns in February because it could still be very cold and snowy at this altitude, but today was a beautiful sunny day with quite warm temperature. 

It was clear that we were in a more Jewish town, as the signs pointed to the Jewish Museum, the Synagogue and the Jewish Quarter.

The history of Belmonte, a town of about 7,500 less than 30 miles from the Spanish frontier, is legend. A foundation stone dated 1297 was discovered of a synagogue showing that this is a Jewish community with a long history. 

It was ‘discovered’ in 1917 by Samuel Schwartz a Polish Galician mining engineer, who visited Belmonte. He met local residents and told them that he was Jewish and they said that this was quite impossible, as they believed that they were the last Jews on earth. Cut off from the rest of the world with no Google or internet, they had been living as secret Jews in this remote hilltop and would not accept that Samuel Schwartz was Jewish, until he recited the first sentence of Shma Yisrael and when we said the Hebrew name of God, they began to believe that perhaps he was Jewish. 

They had maintained their Jewish identity for over four hundred years by marrying mainly among themselves and adhering to the belief in a single God who would redeem his people at the end of days. 

They practiced some Jewish observances, the Sabbath and some holidays. They often lit candles on Friday night where they could not be seen from the outside and observed Passover and Yom Kippur a day or two before or after the Jewish calendar date to confuse agents of the Inquisition. The women were the carriers of the tradition and as a result, records indicated that more women were burned at the stake than men, because they were the ones caught transmitting religion to the next generation. 

In the past 15 years, the Israeli organization Shavei Yisrael has been assisting the community to become a fully integrated observant kehillah and arranged for Rabbi Elisha Salas to become their Rabbi. 

And because some could show that the lineage on their mothers' side had been uninterrupted since 1497, they were allowed a lenient conversion, which required circumcision and ritual immersion in a mikvah as well as adherence to basic mitzvoth of Shabbat, kashrut and taharat hamishpacha. 

Others were required to undergo a stricter conversion since they were considered Christians during the many generations since the Inquisition. 

Shavei Israel was founded in 2002 by Michael Freund. The following information was culled from the Shavei Yisrael website. 

While serving as the Deputy Communications Director under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1997, Freund opened an envelope that arrived in the mail one day. That simple action was to profoundly change his life as well as that of many others.

The letter was from a group in northeastern India called the Bnei Menashe. They said they were descendants of the tribe of Menashe, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and were pleading to return to the Promised Land. Their letter sent Freund on a mission to learn all he could about the Lost Tribes of Israel. In the process, he discovered that all across the world there are “lost Jews” dreaming of returning to their Jewish roots.

Shaved Yisrael believes that the Jewish People is a family with links that never vanish completely; they endeavor to strengthen the links wherever they may have been weakened by history, distance, or social parameters.

From northeastern India to southern Spain, from the coast of Portugal to the shores of Brazil, countless numbers of people are trying to make sense of their Jewish ancestry, wrestling with profound questions of history, identity and self. Many are literally knocking on Jewry's collective door, looking for a way to enter.

This presents the Jewish people with a tremendous opportunity to reinforce its ranks and reinvigorate its spirit by extending a courteous hand to all those who wish to return. 

Shavei Israel is the only Jewish organization today that is actively reaching out to “lost Jews” in an effort to facilitate their return. They approach each case on a human level, lending guidance and understanding in tracing Jewish roots, exploring Jewish history and evaluating options for returning to the Jewish people.

Shavei Israel supports, guides, and provides assistance for these personal journeys however varied they may be. Shavei Israel opens the door to all who have decided that Judaism and a return to the Jewish people are central to their fate and their identity. 
Shavei Israel does not proselytize nor does it support any form of missionary activity. 
Shavei Israel responds to personal expressions of desire to return to Judaism.
Shaved Yisrael is a team of academics, educators, and rabbinical figures and has the support of different rabbinical authorities in Israel and the United States of America. Their work is in complete accordance with Jewish Law and under the ongoing supervision of the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel.

Shavei Israel sponsors rabbis and teachers to work with various groups of “lost Jews” in places as far afield as India and the Iberian peninsula. Shavei Israel rabbis are currently posted in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Russia, Italy, Colombia, El Salvador, Chile and Poland.

For those seeking to undergo formal conversion to Judaism, Shavei Israel offers various educational options in Israel, including Machon Miriam, the only Spanish-language conversion and return institute in Jerusalem. Dozens of Spanish and Portuguese crypto-Jews graduate from Machon Miriam each year, and proceed to undergo formal conversion by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.

We walked with Elizabeta to the synagogue and met Joao "Jochanan" Diogo, the president of the shul. The synagogue was built in the late 1990’s, commemorating the 500^th anniversary of the publication of the Royal Decree of Expulsion of the Jews from Portugal. Representatives of the Jewish community of Belmonte, its municipality, and the Governments of Portugal and the State of Israel participated in the ceremony. 

It is a beautiful building consisting of a large Beit Knesset with four or five sifrei Torah, a social hall and kitchen, and a beautiful Mikvah. Jochanan speaks little English and Elizabeta translated. He told us that there is a minyan every Shabbat and Yom Tov and that about 20 to 30 attend services. They have adopted the sefarad liturgy and the kriat hatorah is done by either their Rabbi Elisha Salas or by one of the youngsters in the community who have spent time studying Torah in a yeshiva in Israel. 

The Ner Tamid (Eternal Light) over the Aron Hakodesh (Holy Ark) is a large scale replica of the type of container that would hold their Shabbat candles; effectively hiding them and allowing a small opening in the container where oxygen would allow the flame to burn in honour of Shabbat. 

The modern mikvah is now used by a number of local women.

We asked him many questions about the centuries of secret observance, some minhagim and the concept of marrying within your own family to ensure the sanctity of the Jewish lineage. It was fascinating and became even more interesting when we returned with the JRoots group the following Monday night and Tuesday morning. 

There was a plaque hanging in the shul lobby and it is worth translating the plaque to realize the uniqueness of this community.

"In this place the chain was never broken. Here in the village of Belmonte, in this house and the nearby houses, in the heart of the Jewish Quarter, people have been living full and richly Jewish lives from days of old. On the heels of governmental decrees, the residents of this Jewish village, like other Jews throughout Spain and Portugal, had to deny their religion, while quietly observing Judaism in their homes.

Here the candle was not extinguished. 

Here in the houses of the village, they kept the Jewish commandments in secret, for a period of 500 years from 1492 till 1992, while they passed on the traditions from generation to generation. They secretly observed Shabbat in their hearts, while appearing to observe religious Sunday openly in the eyes of their Christian neighbours. Forced to live double lives...always careful never to confuse the Jewish and Christian observances, for fear of falling into the hands of the Inquisition. They would bless the wine and the challah, mumbling words of Tefillah in darkness, guarding their Judaism within their soul. 

Here, the Jewish soul was not lost. Here the Jewish soul remains strong forever.

And from the past, will arise the future.

From the darkness and terrible times to the light of the new synagogue and centre of spirituality."

The menorah outside the shul

After our tour of the shul with Jochanan, we walked with our guide thru the small town and stopped outside the Jewish Museum, which is currently under renovation. In the courtyard of the Museum stands a huge menorah that is lit Chanukah time with the participation of the entire town, both Christians and Jews. It is significant and somewhat ironic that these Jews whose observances were hidden for so long, participate openly in a menorah lighting ceremony that personifies the mitzvah of "pirsumei nissah", open proclamation of the miracles of Chanukah.

Our guide then arranged for a local shop owner to open her store so that we could buy locally produced Sheep Cheese under the supervision of Rabbi Salas and Porto Rabbi Litvak. And a short walk down the street brought us to the temporary location of the Jewish Museum, right on the Main Street of town, next to the monument in honour of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Belmonte native who went on to discover and colonize Brazil in 1500 for the government of Portugal.  

Before leaving town, we drove over to the new hotel in town, Hotel Sinai, which has Sinai in large Hebrew letters on the side of the building and which has a large mezuzah on the doorpost. This was the hotel in which we would stay when we returned the following week with the JRoots group. We asked the receptionist if the hotel was kosher to which she replied that most of the ingredients are kosher, but if one wishes to have a strictly kosher meal, the hotel requires 24 hours notice to allow them to contact Rabbi Salas and make arrangements for a mashgiach to be on site. 

We left late in the afternoon for the three hour drive to our self catering apartment for the next two nights, in the coastal walled city of Obidos.

More to come with our posting of Obidos and Cascais. 

All the best

Fran and David