The history of Jews in Portugal continues to be rich in events. After the expulsion in 1497, after the Inquisition which dragged on between 1536 and 1821, after the Portuguese Dreyfus affair in 1937, now it was the State's turn to not consider itself guilty of the invasion of the Porto synagogue in 2022.

A judge named Nuno Filipe Coelho has just made history. He was in a good mood that day, when he saved the State from the harm it caused to the Jewish Community of Porto, arguing the judiciary does not need to have a "news" of a specific "crime" to open a criminal investigation against any individual or legal entity, and the State does not need to collect "indictments of crime" to search the largest synagogue in the country, nor any other location, since the Portuguese legal norms relating to searches do not mention such expression. Coelho adds the law also does not define what an indictment is.

This court decision could only leave the most inattentive astonished. This is precisely the proof of everything the Porto Jewish Community has been claiming from the very beginning. The Portuguese State opened a criminal investigation against an organized minority, through fake news and anonymous letters full of fanciful generalities such as "they traffic, counterfeit, etc.", without knowing when, where, who, or what. In addition, if the law doesn’t define what an indictment is, then everything depends on an opinions of justice officials, without needing a single incriminating document, a minimum of empirical data, a minimum of evidentiary support, a minimum of truth requirements, and even the imputation to an agent of a specific crime as defined by law.

Portugal calls itself a "State of Law", but for the searches to be justified it is enough for the government (political power) to promote some fake news (media power) and send the fabricated news to the prosecutor's office (judicial power). History will speak on all of this. In the Israeli legal system this would be an aberration, as it would be in civilized nations.

The Day of Shame

The strongest Jewish Community in Europe in cultural terms saw its name devastated by a State that – without indictments of crime – searched one of the largest synagogues in Europe, ruined the good name of an institution, jeopardized its future, promoted the age-old antisemitic myths of money and the sale of the homeland, destroyed a law that could have been beneficial to Portugal, inaugurated the Hamas embassy in Lisbon and, at the end of this lethal farce, the State triumphantly declared that everything occurred according to the “law”. Entitled the Day of Shame, the event on March 11th of each year, which the Jewish Community of Porto immortalized, tends to be more important than initially thought.

The scandalous case of “Mr. Patrick Drahi”

When the Porto synagogue was raided by dozens of officials on the fateful Day of Shame, the most wanted man was Mr. Patrick Drahi, a Moroccan Jew, from a traditional Sephardic family, with ancestors who returned to Portugal after the Inquisition and who even had their name engraved on the Ner Tamid of the Lisbon synagogue. They were buried in the local Jewish cemetery and in the British cemetery of Estrela. Only a complete ignoramus could question the accuracy of the Sephardic identity of the person in question, who is not just a Jew of Portuguese Sephardic origin, but a Sephardic Jew through and through. However, Drahi was a “suspect”.

The “evidence of crime” relating to Mr. Patrick Drahi was an anonymous email accusing him of “having bought nationality”. The authorities immediately presumed that this purchase had been made in Porto. They did not even bother to call the Register Office to find out that, in fact, he had been certified by the Jewish Community of Lisbon. It issued an opinion in good faith, the Register office issued an opinion in good faith, and the government decided in good faith. Case closed.

Worse, in the midst of this mess, the former president of SIRESP was dismissed by the government and had her house burgled by mysterious professional thieves who stole her computers. Jews aren't idiots enough to believe in these coincidences. A little common sense is necessary.

The scandalous case of “Mr. 250 Euros”

Those were lively times in Portugal. Newspapers falsely claimed Mr. Roman Abramovich to have financed the Porto Holocaust Museum. This was the evidence fueling the criminal proceedings, along with an email from a woman calling that universally hated Jew an “orphan.” However, the Jewish Community of Porto issued a good faith opinion, the Register Office issued a good faith opinion, and the government decided in good faith. Case closed.

The Community claims it will publish a huge book on Amazon dedicated to a family with Portuguese names such as Leiva, Rosa, Rocha, Leja, Abel, Benjamin, and, most importantly, Paya, which in Portuguese inquisitorial slang meant "unpleasant person". The book will be mixed with all the news previously published in the mainstream press, as well as abstract denunciations about the "orphan" and other similar nonsense.

The Community will not accept that the "blame" falls on a doorman

In its eagerness to end a law that promoted the granting of nationality to a large number of Israeli Jews, and which therefore did not fit into the current priorities of the regime, the Portuguese political and media system did not limit itself to fabricating the Leiva and Drahi cases, but also decided to use at will the abstract slanderous generalities that were transmitted to it by a humble doorman once condemned for calling a non-Jew a piece of shit and who was expelled from the community a decade ago for calling Dreyfus's granddaughter an apostate.

In 2022, the Community suffered immeasurably greater damage than that caused by the authors of the anonymous letters against Barros Basto in 1936. However, what matters is how in both cases the State took advantage of all the garbage that was distributed to it, seeming unaware about history. In general, the terrific slanderer existed at all times and always benefited from decadent authorities. He acted in antiquity, in the Middle Ages, and in the Inquisition, caused the Portuguese Dreyfus case, spat on the Jewish community of Oporto in the 21st century.

Anyway, the Community does not accept that the "blame" should now be placed on the shoulders of a doorman. The system can turn as many times as it wants, but it was not the doorman who published the fake news about Mr. Leiva da Rocha, it was not he who sent an anonymous email about Mr. Patrick Drahi, it was not he who assaulted the houses of the former president of SIRESP and a lady lawyer from the Community, and finally, it was not he who destroyed a law and inaugurated the Hamas embassy in Lisbon.

Hamas hostages checkmate the system

Jews of Portuguese origin emigrated throughout the world. A decade ago, the Jewish community of Oporto compiled lists of the names of the founding families of communities in Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Syria, Egypt, and many other places in the Ottoman Empire, and the Mediterranean, such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, and Europe, notably in Amsterdam, London, Hamburg, and others.

Visitors to the Porto Jewish museum are always impressed by the fates of Portuguese Jews around the world, marked on a globe there and on interactive screens that display nearly endless lists of names. This research work was also a way to honour those families, and those individuals, including the Hamas hostages – such as Adina Moshe Galante and Ofer Calderon – who likely owe their lives to obtaining Portuguese nationality, to which the Porto Jewish Community contributed in a small way, by granting them the just certificate of Sephardicism to which they were entitled.

Galante, 72, belonged to a traditional Sephardic family in Turkey, and there are records of this family in the Portuguese synagogues and institutions that existed in Izmir, Edirne, and others, such as the "Kahal Kadosh Portugal."

Calderon, 52, was from a traditional Sephardic family in Greece, and there are records of this family in the Portuguese synagogues and institutions that existed in Thessaloniki: the "Kahal Kadosh Portugal," the "Kahal Kadosh Lisbon," the "Kahal Kadosh Évora," the "Portugal Velha," and others.

The strange "petulant”

In the trial session, the witness Isaac Assor, from the Jewish Community of Lisbon, had the opportunity to explain to the young judge that the State understood nothing about Jews and that it was doomed to make mistake after mistake. This was enough for Nuno Filipe Coelho to call Assor a "petulant."

This fact may seem relevant, but in reality it is an unimportant detail, as the Portuguese State can open investigations against Jewish communities and search synagogues at will, even in the 21st century.