When, in 2014, Dr. Débora Elijah recently graduated in clinical psychology from a university in Porto, urged this entity to establish a cooperation protocol with dental universities in France, the way was opened for the influx of young Jewish students to Porto. The following year, a handful of young Jewish people from Paris and Marseille arrived in the city. In the following years, that small number tended to multiply, reaching the five hundred that exist today.
In 2018, the Jewish Community of Porto decided to open a study center, with a prayer room, next to the university, for young students. A two-story café on Rua do Amial was then rented, which soon became full of a very young Jewish community. Two men set out to promote activities for that extraordinary population: Rabbi Yoel Zekri and especially a young man from Djerba named Ilan Cohen.
The island of Djerba is known for housing a community exclusively composed of Kohanim. The island's famous synagogue is called El Ghriba. It is considered the oldest synagogue in Africa and one of the oldest continuously functioning Jewish temples in the world.
A lesser-known fact took place in 2018, when David Garrett traveled to Djerba trying to recruit a cantor (chanzan) for the youth community in Porto. Although he was disappointed with the results of the trip, a week later, Ilan Cohen showed up in Porto to study for five years. He had been born in Djerba; his family was associated with the great annual Lag Baomer festival on the island. From that day on, he became the great spiritual leader of the French youth community in Porto.
Around the same time, it became necessary to abandon the rented café due to lack of space. The youth community was growing more and more. The Community bought a shop to house the study center, functioning until today as a club and with a prayer room. For the neighbors of the building where the shop is located, it was never easy to live with the noise produced by so many young people, all in their twenties.
Now, the Community's leadership decided to sell the space and buy a detached house, sponsored also by Chabad Lubavitch. The Chabad youth center of the city of Porto will be founded there.
After being largely mentored by Ilan Cohen for years, the youth community of Porto is growing stronger. As many students leave for France to practice dentistry, many others arrive, enriching Jewish life in Porto year after year.
Ilan Cohen is now a renowned dentist in Marseille. He left an indelible mark on the city of Porto. Even today, he follows step by step the development of the youth community he helped create and remains a key figure in the Lag Baomer event, which is celebrated every year in the city's central synagogue.
Cohen was the target of an attempted murder on November 29, 2022. In the latest book published on Amazon by the Jewish Community of Porto, entitled "The Abramovich Case," the subtitle is suggestive: "Who tried to kill Ilan Cohen?"
