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Porto’s Jewish community unveils memorial to 842 local victims of Portuguese Inquisition
PORTO, Portugal (JTA) — In this city on Portugal’s northwestern coast, a small Jewish community has dedicated years to identifying its predecessors who were killed or expelled in the Portuguese Inquisition of 1536 to 1821.
Drawing on newly digitized records, the community was able to identify 842 people, ranging from 10 to 110 years old, who were victims of the Inquisition locally. On Sunday, it inaugurated a memorial engraved with their names.
The memorial, dedicated during a special event called the European Day of Jewish Culture, measures 13 feet wide by 6.5 feet high and is installed on an exterior wall of Porto’s Jewish Museum.
The museum is one of several institutions that have flourished in recent years as Porto, which is home to roughly 1,000 Jews today, has benefited from a swell of interest among tourists and descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from the region who for the last eight years have been allowed to apply for citizenship.
But while the citizenship law has given rise to new investments in contemporary Jewish communities, Portugal still has a dearth of education about the Inquisition, according to Hugo Vaz, the curator of Porto’s Jewish Museum and Holocaust Museum. Although references have begun to make appearances in the curricular manuals for Portuguese schools, many students are asked to learn little about the Jewish population that was all but stamped out of their country over three centuries.
“I am 35 years old, and when I learned about the Inquisition in school, I learned that the Inquisition was the hunting of witches,” Vaz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I learned that in less than five minutes.”
Comparatively, Holocaust education has improved. Portugal was officially neutral in World War II and became a passageway for many Jewish refugees, making that episode of its history more favorable than the “black page” of the Inquisition, said Vaz.
Next to each name on the memorial is the date of the victim’s auto-da-fé, a public ceremony in which people were sentenced by the Inquisition. Some were sentenced to death and burned alive on that date, others imprisoned and tortured, others expelled and others forced to wear the “sambenito” — a humiliating outfit that featured crosses or painted devils and flames, as well as a conical hat — for the rest of their lives. The elaborate ceremonies usually took place in Portugal’s largest squares.
Grand procession to the auto-da-fe of people sentenced by the Inquisition of Lisbon in the 18th century. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)
Most of the victims were accused of practicing Judaism by their neighbors, such as business rivals or former housekeepers, said Vaz. Historians believe it is possible that many victims, especially by the late 17th century, were assimilated Catholics who did not keep Jewish traditions at all.
Porto’s memorial wall was facilitated by the community’s digitization of records from the National Archives in Lisbon, said Michael Rothwell, director of the Jewish Museum and Holocaust Museum.
“Over the last number of years, there has been a big effort to put all those records online,” Rothwell told JTA. “Our community is supporting the restoration of all the case files that are rotting away. The ones that were in good condition have been scanned and put online, so we were able to do research online to find the Jews in the Inquisition who were from Porto.”
The community has hired historians to study the cases of all 842 people on the memorial and plans to publish a book on their stories next year.
Vaz hopes that learning more about these victims, such as a 10-year-old child accused together with their family, will encourage deeper education about the centuries-long period of persecution.
“A 10-year-old child doesn’t have consciousness of what religion means,” he said. “For me it’s unbelievable thinking about a nation persecuting everyone, including the kids, for practicing something they actually were not very well aware of.”
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The post Porto’s Jewish community unveils memorial to 842 local victims of Portuguese Inquisition appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran’s Oil Minister Visits Oil Export Terminal as Israeli Strike Feared
A gas flare on an oil production platform in the Soroush oilfields is seen alongside an Iranian flag in Iran, July 25, 2005. Photo: Reuters / Raheb Homavandi / File.
Iran’s oil minister landed on Kharg Island, home to the country’s main export terminal, and held talks with a naval commander on Sunday, the oil ministry’s news website Shana reported, amid concern Israel could attack energy facilities.
An Israeli military spokesman said on Saturday that Israel would retaliate in response to last week’s missile attack by Tehran “when the time is right.”
US news website Axios cited Israeli officials as saying Iran’s oil facilities could be hit, while US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he did not think Israel had yet concluded how to respond.
Iran is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with production of around 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or 3% of global output. Iranian oil exports have climbed this year to near multi-year highs of 1.7 million bpd despite US sanctions.
Most of its oil and gas wealth is located in the south of the country, where the Kharg Island terminal is situated and from which around 90% of Iranian oil exports are shipped.
Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad arrived on Sunday “to visit the oil facilities and meet operational staff located on Kharg Island,” Shana reported, adding that the oil terminal there has the capacity to store 23 million barrels of crude.
State media reported Paknejad met with Mohammad Hossein Bargahi, a Revolutionary Guards Navy commander, to check the security of Iran’s South Pars gas platforms and assess the effective actions of the Guards’ 4th Naval Region.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy plays an important role in the security of oil and gas facilities,” Paknejad was quoted as saying.
China, which does not recognize US sanctions, is Tehran’s biggest oil customer and according to analysts imported 1.2 to 1.4 million barrels per day from Iran in the first half of 2024.
The post Iran’s Oil Minister Visits Oil Export Terminal as Israeli Strike Feared first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says France’s Call for Halting Sales of Arms Used in Gaza is a ‘Disgrace’
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks as he meets with his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu (nos seen) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, February 4, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Benoit Tessier
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit out at France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday for saying that shipments of arms to Israel used in the conflict in Gaza should be stopped as part of a broader effort to find a political solution.
“Shame on them,” Netanyahu said of Macron and other Western leaders who have called for what he described as an arms embargo on Israel.
“Israel will win with or without their support,” he said in a pre-recorded video released by his office, adding that calling for an arms embargo was a disgrace.
Macron earlier told France Inter radio that the priority was “to get back to a political solution (and) that arms used to fight in Gaza are halted. France doesn’t ship any.”
“Our priority now is to avoid escalation. The Lebanese people must not in turn be sacrificed, Lebanon cannot become another Gaza,” he added.
France is not a major weapons provider for Israel, shipping military equipment worth 30 million euros ($33 million) last year, according to the defense ministry’s annual arms exports report.
Macron’s comments come as his Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot is on a four-day trip to the Middle East, wrapping up on Monday in Israel as Paris looks to play a role in reviving diplomatic efforts.
The post Israel Says France’s Call for Halting Sales of Arms Used in Gaza is a ‘Disgrace’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After a Year of War, Wounded Israeli Reservists Face Long Road to Recovery
Aaron Bours, 34, an Israeli reservist and marketing manager who was severely wounded fighting in Gaza, participates in physical therapy as he recovers at Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan, Israel September 23, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Ten months after he was shot in the leg by a sniper in Gaza, Israeli reservist Aaron Bours is walking on crutches and hoping to make a full recovery from the wound he sustained trying to rescue his officer in an ambush.
“There were bullets all around me,” Bours said.
Three hours after he was shot, he was in surgery at Sheba Medical center near Tel Aviv where doctors were able to save his leg. Long months of intense rehabilitation followed.
Some 300,000 reservists were called up at the beginning of the war and many have served for months on multiple tours. Their experience, and the experience of the families they left, will color attitudes in Israel for years to come.
As of September, more than 10,000 wounded soldiers have been treated by the Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Defense since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that triggered Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.
More than two thirds of those treated have been reservists who returned to their military units from civilian life.
Just over a third are dealing with limb injuries, with the rest dealing with a variety of internal and spinal injuries, as well as eye, ear and head wounds that underscore the intense combat in the ruins of Gaza.
Israel Dudkiewicz, the doctor who runs the rehabilitation center at Sheba Medical Center, said the hospital understood on Oct. 7 that they would need to expand to receive an influx of wounded patients. With around a quarter of its staff called as reserves themselves, the hospital added beds and opened three new wings to treat the injured.
“I can’t say it wasn’t challenging,” said Dudkiewicz. “But in the end we were able to provide service.”
But the impact of serious injuries on reservists, who will return to civilian life when the fighting is over, will be felt for many years.
Yosi Sochr, 34, was severely wounded when an explosive device was detonated remotely. Doctors are still not sure if he will ever regain full use of his left arm and shoulder, which were hit by a piece of shrapnel.
So far he can move his hand but not the rest of his arm.
“It was hard,” said the reservist in the hospital bed next to his wife. “I’m not a 20-year-old kid. I have a whole world around me – when I just disappear, it’s felt.”
The post After a Year of War, Wounded Israeli Reservists Face Long Road to Recovery first appeared on Algemeiner.com.