On the night of 1May, some 50 community activists from southern Brazil took part in the launch of the film "1506 – The Lisbon Genocide". The event was a partnership between the Jewish Community of Oporto and the Jewish Women's International Zionist Organization of Rio Grande do Sul (WIZO RS).
The online conference began with the film being shown, followed by a debate with three participants. Historian Ilse Edla Bejzman Wofchuk provided a historical context for Portugal during the period of the 1506 massacre; the journalist and president of B'nai B'rith Portugal, Gabriela Cantergi, explained the reasons that led to this film being produced, establishing a link between the genocide depicted and the massacres the Jews have suffered over the centuries, such as those of York, Seville, the East European pogroms, the Holocaust and the recent 7 October; while the expert on Sephardic culture, Denise Villanova, recounted the history of her family, which left Portugal after the Edict of Expulsion and having passed through some of the countries of the Portuguese diaspora, ended in southern Brazil.
At the end, the audience asked many questions about production of the film and the current situation of the Jewish Community of Oporto, especially after the 7 October massacre.
Among the spectators at this event was a distant cousin of Rudolph Lemchen, ex-president of the Oporto Community, who is portrayed in the short film, The Nun’s Kaddish. Lemchen lived through the difficult times of this community, when there were virtually no members. For that reason, in 1982, he said kaddish alone, without the ten men required by Judaism. His cousin was able to hear of the prosperity of the Jewish Community of Oporto today, with feasts being observed and minyan at all Shabbatoth.
