Expulsion, memory and return 🕎 · Carl Munson's Portugal Club

Expulsion, memory and return 🕎

Olá, bom dia!

Here’s a word you use every week without knowing its story: sábado, Saturday. It comes from the Hebrew Shabbat, a small reminder that Jewish life has been part of Portugal for well over a thousand years.

It’s a history of light and shadow. In 1496, King Manuel I ordered Portugal’s Jews to convert or leave. In Belmonte, families kept their faith in secret for centuries. And in 1940, a Portuguese consul, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, defied orders to sign visas for refugees fleeing the war.

In 2015, Portugal offered nationality to descendants of the Sephardic Jews it had expelled, and more than 56,000 people became Portuguese. This year, that door closed to new applications.

Fact sheet Nº 7: The Jewish community is now in the classroom, with the history, the heritage, and a three-language table.

Over to you: have you visited the Jewish quarter in Castelo de Vide, the synagogue in Tomar, or Belmonte’s Jewish Museum?

Shalom, e até amanhã! 🙏

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Expulsion, memory and return 🕎