At a time when the world threatens to fall apart and start again, the Jewish Community of Porto has increasingly blended the teaching of Jewish history and its connection to Europe in general and Portugal in particular. Thousands of schoolchildren do not fear this knowledge; rather, they are usually happy to benefit from it.
"God, King, and Fatherland", those exact ideals—often expressed in monarchist mottos like "For God, King, and Country" (or variants like "One Faith, One Law, One King" in France)—were the absolute foundation of European society, social hierarchy, and political power for well over a thousand years, right up until the French Revolution.
Christianity provided the moral and cosmological framework. Society was deeply religious, and the Catholic Church—and later state Protestant churches—held ultimate authority over spiritual truth, community morality, and the calendar of daily life.
Power was justified by the Divine Right of Kings. Monarchs were believed to be chosen and accountable only to Him. The king was the apex of the social pyramid, and obedience to him was seen as obedience to the divine order.
Fatherland notion evolved over time from regional or feudal loyalties into early forms of collective identity and patriotism. It defined the land, culture, and people that the subject owed their earthly loyalty to.
The precise European triad of "God, King, and Fatherland" didn't exist in ancient Israel, but the underlying concepts were deeply the same.
The concept of God as the ultimate ruler and covenantal master was the central, unifying pillar of ancient Israelite and Second Temple society. Jewish society functioned as a temple-state governed by priests and scholars, where the Torah was the supreme law.
Israeli Kings from Saul, David, Solomon and successors were cherished as anointed rulers meant to enforce God's law and protect the nation. Even today, Jewish theology focus on the coming Messiah, an anointed earthly king from the line of David.
About the Fatherland (The Holy Land), love for the physical land of Israel was an absolute core ideal that endured through conquests, exiles, and occupations. The land was considered the ancestral homeland given by God through a covenant, and longing for it was a primary theme in ancient literature and prayers.
"God, King, and Fatherland". In the Jewish world, this triple belief remains until today. In modern Europe, maybe the words Dignity, Freedom, and Solidarity are the most appropriate to condensing its core values, although these - due to their subjectivity - can also be used in relation to the empirical reality that was experienced in ancient Israel.
