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It was an unforgettable day. More than a day of Freedom, it was a day of Life. The Jewish community of Porto officially inaugurated its new cemetery on April 25, 2023. The ceremony was attended by rabbis from Portugal, Israel, the US, and the UK. The attorney general of the Portuguese republic was also invited, but was embarrassed to appear.

The previous cemetery had been destroyed weeks after Dom Manuel's edict at the end of the 15th century. Centuries later, the "Portuguese Dreyfus" conceived plans to create a new cemetery, but the State preferred to use anonymous letters from the dregs of society to strip him of his uniform and destroy the community he had painstakingly built.

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A Jewish cemetery is considered a sacred place, often treated with even higher standards of sanctity than a synagogue. Named the "Isaac Aboab Field of Equality," is located in Maia, a municipality bordering Porto, and has room for approximately 300 grave sites. The site is in a quiet area in Maia, chosen because finding a suitable, discreet location within Porto was difficult.

A House of Life

In Jewish tradition and Hebrew, a cemetery is often referred to as Beit HaChayim, which translates to "House of Life". It emphasizes that the soul is eternal and that death is not an end, but a transition to another dimension of life; a gentle euphemism for a place of burial, focusing on the continued spiritual existence of the deceased rather than their physical death, and it reflects the belief in the future resurrection of the dead.

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The Freedom Festival

Usually Portugal celebrates the 25th of April 1974 Revolution every year, a celebration that unites politicians, media groups, and all sectors of culture in ecstasy. The Revolution ended Marcello Caetano’s “Social State”. Freedom was proclaimed around the country, but not for the Jews in Porto.

In 1974, the Community experienced a climate of fear created by the occupations of the business of Ozias Cymerman and Meir Cymerman, the escape to Spain of Henry Tillo’s family, and the threats of arrests by an army commando unit that fell on other Porto Jews.

In 1975, the Synagogue was pelted with stones for more than an hour and a letter was put in the mailbox, saying "You need bosses to get in order and stop bothering others." “If we ever attack Jews, it will only be those who collaborate with the Communists, and if that’s not enough to have peace, and if we have to, we will eliminate the whole community with a single pogrom more efficiently than Hitler did, and for that we don’t need publicity.”

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In 1976, the lower classes of the population were occupied with reading, no longer Luís de Camões, but a Portuguese edition of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” The Jewish history of Portugal no longer interested anyone. It would be only the socialists who would demonstrate their qualities in science, culture, and in creating a formidable army, ready to project power and morality onto the world once more. They would create their own laws, their own courts, and their own press, entrusting them to local oligarchs handpicked from among their loyal friends.

In 1977, the message “Death to the Jews” with swastikas was written in large letters on the central wall of the Synagogue of Oporto. It was never determined whether the perpetrators were Nazi socialists ("National Socialists"), Soviet socialists, or Maoist socialists. The only fact that matters is that the vandals were socialists. The Jewish of the city were targets from all sides of the political spectrum. Right-wing forces jeered at Jews as unwanted immigrants. Communists called them owners and imperialists

21st century

To understand the current system relating to the Jews and the recent inauguration of the Hamas embassy in Lisbon, there is no need to waste long hours checking the message boxes of local politicians and oligarchs. One only needs to read the so-called intellectuals with a public voice. In 2002, the Nobel laureate communist José Saramago harshly criticized Israel, comparing the conditions in Palestinian territories to the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. "A sense of impunity characterises the Israeli people and its army", "These crimes were committed by the government with the applause of the Israeli people".

In 2023, a system opinion maker called Miguel Tavares showed the same ferocity: "I do not accept that Portugal is granting nationality to citizens of Israel at a time when this country denies any rights to the Palestinian population," "Israel voluntarily sacrificed 1,200 of its citizens to carry out the massacre it is carrying out in Gaza," "More than 800,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza," "This will only end when Israel achieves a final solution," "The entire people of Israel, or almost all of them, are in solidarity with them, in solidarity with a government of criminals."