Porto, March 14, 2026. Shabbat has ended, as well as the reading of Parashat Pekudei and the Book of Shemot. When the local Jewish Community overcame this Shabbat, with a minyan on Friday and Saturday in its two synagogues (393 men in total), the way was opened for the next three books of the Torah, after which the organization will have completed eleven consecutive years of continuously maintaining the minyan in the city.

Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Portugal in the last five centuries, in any city, not even on a much smaller scale. Each year represents a complete cycle of Torah readings, with the call of congregants to the bimah. The benefit of always praying with a minyan is not limited to the possibility of saying kaddish and keriah. A minyan brings the shekhinah (divine presence), and each Amen uttered has effects in the mystical and material world. The true shekhinah assures God's intervention in earthly events, just like the cloud and fire that once guided the Israelites in the wilderness. This active presence is marked by divine involvement in all things, projecting radiance and good fortune.

From 2015 to 2026, in Porto, the completed minyan literally "the count" during the prayers, meant having at leat 10 men present in each ritual, and it could be dozens or hundreds. So many years with a minyan correspond to thousands of religious services spread throughout different times of the year, in heat, cold, and rain. overcoming all reasons that always hinder the functioning of diaspora synagogues far from the homes of most of their members who travel extensively and who have times for vacations, illness, insecurity, and fear of terrorism, and so on.

The minyan in Porto attracts good luck to the Community, to the city, to the country, and represents a gentle rebuke to the political officials who four years ago tried to destroy the congregation and have absolutely failed, to their own shame and the utter dishonor of the system in which they vegetate.

History teaches Jews how to proceed...

In the Jewish world, times of peace and prosperity should be enjoyed with joy, but always bearing in mind that years of good harvest are also years of rats.

In 1497, Judaism was banned in Portugal and the Jews were considered heretics and apostates. The community died, it ended. In 1923, the Jewish community of Porto was officially re-established and the state and its press attacked again, this time, the community president being accused to be a mere pantheist, and his colleagues were described as Bolsheviks. The "Portuguese Dreyfus" case brought eight decades of shekhinah begalutah (absence of divine presence) to the community, as the energy in the synagogue was one of paralysis, of darkness, like a black hole that swallowed everything in a seemingly endless scene of death.

In the 21th century, when the synagogue and the community were reborn, they were attacked again by the state, and not by chance the most prominent leaders were called non-professed. However, the community survived, as the local Jews already had the lessons of the past well learned and prepared to act in a state of necessity.

Unlike what happened in 1497 and 1937, now not only the state's efforts have resulted in a great fiasco, but the losses caused are being tallied by the community, the serious reputational damage to the organization, the illnesses that have afflicted its members, the lists of Jewish businessmen in newspapers as if they were game animals and responsible for the housing crisis, and so on.

There will probably also be terrorist attacks against the community – as the state and its press have labeled it as a nest of "Israelis" and "oligarchs", paving the way for any terrorist to feel comfortable and protected in attacking that specific target and not another – and on that day, there will be a worldwide press release with an "I Accuse!", so brutal, so full of documented scandalous facts, that the perpetrators will be brought to their knees before the entire world.

The strongest community in Europe in cultural matters lives in Porto and its minyan continues its successful path. The 11th anniversary celebration of the minyan in the city, which will take place in Tishrei, will be yet another clear sign that Judaism is alive in Portugal and that the state must find an antidote to coexist peacefully with this reality. There is no other option. Porto's central synagogue cannot be dismantled stone by stone to be taken to Israel.