The birth of Lisbon’s Jewish Community

Lisbon’s current Jewish community has its origins in the groups of Sephardic Jews who settled in Portugal at the beginning of the 19th century.

They were mostly traders from Gibraltar and Morocco (Tangier, Tetouan and Mogador) and some of their names still expressed a connection to their Iberian homelands before the expulsion period.

This is the case of CONQUI (from Cuenca, Cuenca province) or CARDOSO (from Cardoso, Viseu district). They were people with an above-average cultural level, who could read and write, and spoke, in addition to liturgical Hebrew, Arabic, English and Haquitia, a Jewish-Hispanic-Moroccan dialect. They had numerous international contacts, not only because of their commercial activities but also because of their family ties throughout the world. These factors explain the rapid economic and cultural flourishing, not only of the Jews of Lisbon, but also of the groups that settled in the first half of the 19th century in the Azores and Faro.

19th century in the Azores and Faro. At the same time as their rapid and successful integration into Portuguese life, the first groups of Jews immediately tried to organize themselves as such, setting up prayer rooms and acquiring plots of land to bury the dead according to Jewish ritual. The first known grave is that of José Amzalak, who died on February 26, 1804 and was buried in a plot belonging to the Estrela English Cemetery, no doubt due to the English nationality of Lisbon’s first Jews, originally from Gibraltar.

At the time, the Jews were still considered a foreign colony and the community had no legal existence. The Constitutional Charter of 1826 only recognized Catholicism as the only religion allowed for Portuguese citizens, leaving other religions to foreigners. This is why at the time people spoke of an Israeli “colony”, just as they spoke of an English or German colony.

Unable to get their community legalized, the Jews of Lisbon set up charitable institutions, especially in the second half of the 19th century. XIX, charitable institutions in the form of autonomous associations, whose statutes were submitted to the Civil Government for approval, or in the form of private foundations, usually run by ladies. These institutions played a decisive role in uniting and organizing Portuguese Judaism.

We’ll mention just three:

> Somej-Nophlim (Amparo dos Pobres): created in 1865 by Simão Anahory, with the aim of helping the poor. Later, in 1916, this association opened the Israeli Hospital, which played such an important role in supporting Israeli refugees during World War II.

> Guemilut Hassadim: founded in 1892 by Moses Anahory to provide spiritual aid and deal with Jewish burials.

> Economic Kitchen: founded in 1899, it, like the Israeli Hospital, played a key role during World War II. Another decisive step towards the constitution of the current Jewish Community of Lisbon was taken in 1894 with the holding of a General Assembly of the Jews of Lisbon, with the aim of unifying the Shehitá services (ritual slaughter and the supply of casher meat).   Under the impulse of Isaac Levy and Simão Anahory, a process began that culminated in the creation, in 1897, of a commission for the construction of a single synagogue and the election of the 1st Committee of the Jewish Community of Lisbon, whose Honorary President is Abraham Bensaúde and the Effective President is Simão Anahory.

 

Official Community Recognition

In 1826, the Constitutional Charter recognized Catholicism as the only religion officially allowed to the Portuguese, referring the remaining religious convictions to the private forum, only allowed to foreigners.

However, there are two royal charters that implicitly recognize the existence of a Jewish community in Lisbon:
– the first is a charter promulgated by King D. Luís, dated 1868, recognizing the “Jews of Lisbon the permission to install a cemetery for the burial of their coreligionists” – the cemetery of Calçada das Lages, still in operation today; This royal diploma has a real historical importance, since it constitutes an implicit, although not yet formal, recognition of the Jewish Community of Lisbon
– the second is dated 1892 and was proclaimed by the Civil Government, ratifying the statutes of the “Guemilut Hassadim Association, Israeli brotherhood of mutual aid in extreme time and funerals”.

These two documents initiated a process of recognition of the legal existence of the Jewish religion in Portugal, which culminated in the official promulgation of the approval of the statutes of the Jewish Community of Lisbon by the Civil Government of Lisbon, legalized by the charter of May 9, 1912, precisely 416 years after the Edict of Expulsion of 1496 by King Manuel and almost a century after the extinction of the Inquisition, in 1821.

The official recognition of the community and the construction of the synagogue gave a new impetus to community life in Lisbon. Thus, in 1912, the Association of Hebrew Studies “Ubá le Zion” was created, whose great promoter was Adolfo Benarus, a professor at the Faculty of Arts of Lisbon, writer and pedagogue, and also founder in 1929 of the Israeli School, which came to have close to a hundred students. The creation of a bulletin, directed by Joseph Benoliel, a link between the members of the community, the organization of a library in 1915 and the foundation of the Hehaver Israeli Youth Association, in 1925, are other milestones in the consolidation of the now modern Jewish Community of Lisbon.

 

Support for World War II refugees

However, the community will experience, as a result of European events, a profound change, both in its action and in its composition. The anti-Semitic persecutions in the East and the rapid rise of Nazism in Germany began to bring the first Ashkenazi Jews to Portugal, who quickly integrated into Portuguese society and the community.

The outbreak of the Second World War, the policy of neutrality to which Portugal resigned itself in the framework of the alliance with England and the granting of transit visas to close to 100 thousand refugees led to an influx of tens of thousands of Jews to Portugal. The few who remained changed the mostly Sephardic proportions of the Lisbon community.

Portuguese Jews played an important role in supporting refugees in this period, first through the creation of the “Portuguese Commission for Assistance to Jewish Refugees in Portugal” (COMASSIS), directed by Augusto Esaguy, and later directly through the refugee support section of the Community itself, chaired by Moisés Amzalak and whose great animator was Elias Baruel. Funded by the Joint and other international Jewish institutions, the community maintained the Economic Kitchen and the Israeli Hospital, providing the refugees with food, clothing, and health care on a daily basis.   Until the 1960s, the community remained demographically stable. However, the creation of the State of Israel and the outbreak of the Colonial War led to the departure of some families.

The political opening of the post-April revolution and the borders, Portugal’s entry into the European Union, the nationality law for Sephardic descendants and other geopolitical and social factors have brought to our country Jewish citizens from different geographies, mainly from Israel, Europe and Brazil. This reality, which has been accelerating in recent years, is giving a new configuration and dynamism to the Jewish community in Portugal.

Today, despite the resurgence of anti-Semitism and the trend towards progressive assimilation around the world, the Jewish community in Lisbon and Portugal has grown and developed significantly. In this sense, and in response to this new and promising demographic reality, its structure has also been strengthened and expanded, organization, which today has a series of essential services in operation, namely: Religious Services in the Synagogue, Cemetery and Hevra Kadishá, Structure for Kashrut and product certifications, Social Center (country club), Jewish Youth Movement, Musical Choir, Dance Group, Mikveh, Jewish Teaching Department, Shiurim, lectures and social activities, numerous events and celebrations, and the Somej Nophlim Charitable Association.