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Jewish spirit in Porto

With two new Jewish museums in Portugal’s second city, Porto is embracing its heritage

May 8, 2022 17:30
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6 min read

Portugal has had five centuries to dwell on its mistake. It was in 1496 that King Manuel I forced the Jews to convert or depart, with the Netherlands, Bordeaux, Italy and the Ottoman empire all gaining from this influx of new immigrants.

Now, the beautiful city of Porto is playing its part in understanding the country’s past — and future — with the opening of two new Jewish museums, one focused on the Holocaust, another offering a more general view of Jewish history in Portugal.

While the city is famous for its port wine, for its place on the Douro River and for its picturesque streets and tiled buildings, this chance to explore Porto’s Jewish heritage gives visitors another good reason to visit.

For starters, there’s the imposing Neo-Moorish style Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue, walking distance from both of the two new museums. As he showed us around, Shamash Erez Vaguima, originally from Israel and now a Porto resident, proudly told us that it’s the largest shul in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula and probably the last in Europe to be built before the Second World War — it was inaugurated in 1938.