There are four major Jewish organizations that focus on archiving, education, and disseminating history through film, and it is not surprising that these organizations are based in Israel and the USA, as the both nations together contain roughly 80% to 90% of the world's approximately 15–16 million Jewish people. Israel holds about 46% (roughly 7.1–7.7 million), while the United States holds approximately 6–6.3 million.

While the vast majority of the global Jewish population is concentrated in these two nations, the Jewish Community of Porto has become probably the fifth largest significant global producer of historical cinema concerning Jews, using film as a primary tool for cultural preservation and education. Over the last decade, the organization has financed and produced several feature films and documentaries that have garnered hundreds of international awards.

This is the List of the largest organizations promoting Jewish cinema, which aim to provide a real or theatricalized filmic vision of the history of the small people of Israel:

1. Yad Vashem (Israel) produces extensive educational films, documentaries, and testimonies about the Holocaust.

2. The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive (Israel/US) holds the largest collection of Jewish documentary films in the world.

3. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (US) creates films and archives for historical education.

4. Also the Center for Jewish History in New York (US) produces documentary content related to Jewish history.

5. The Jewish Community of Porto is uniquely active in producing high-quality, award-winning feature documentary films regarding Jewish history, particularly focusing on Sephardic history, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust. These films are shown at the Jewish Museum of Porto and the Holocaust Museum of Porto, which are managed by the same community.

Other Jewish communities worldwide also have educational missions, but that community is highly unique for integrating professional film production directly into its educational and cultural mission to combat antisemitism. The model of a local community taking on professional historical film production as a central pillar of its educational strategy is largely unique to Porto, Portugal. The community states in its programmatic handbook that it does not exist to please everyone, but to create religion, culture, and educational institutions.

What unites the five institutions

Yad Vashem, The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Center for Jewish History in New York, and the Jewish Community of Porto, Portugal. These five institutions are united as major repositories and custodians of Jewish history, documentary footage, and Holocaust testimonies, producing and preserving films, videotapes, and digital media to document Jewish life, Diaspora communities, and the creation of Israel, ensuring the preservation of "Jewish history, saved one frame at a time". They compile materials from diverse sources, including private collections, institutional archives, and testimonies.

There can be nothing greater in terms of preserving Jewish memory, which is an integral part of Judaism, than the production of films and documentaries based on historical sources of great value and reliability.

Main Films of the Jewish Community of Porto

"The Light of Judah" – This film takes a historical journey that spans centuries. From the medieval fairs to the environment of the study rooms of the most cultivated Jews, from the edict of expulsion to the violence of the departure and dispossession of goods and property, from the Inquisition to the rebirth of the Jewish community of Porto in the twentieth century.

"The 2000 Jewish children exiled" - This film documentary recounts the tragic fate of two thousand Jewish children who, by order of Dom João II, were exiled to the distant and inhospitable island of São Tomé, 7500 kilometers from Lisbon, after the Expulsion from Spain in 1492. The film recounts the miseries of the exodus, the entry of 120,000 refugees into Portugal, the death of Isaac Aboab in , his funeral given by rabbi and astronomer Abraão Zacuto, the atmosphere in the city, the old synagogue, the exorbitant demands of the monarch to make the hospitality of the Spanish community profitable and the drastic actions he took towards the defaulters. The dangers and nightmares of the boat trip are narrated, as well as the arrival on the island populated by wild animals that, according to chroniclers of the time, swallowed people alive.

"1506 – The Genocide of Lisbon" – This is another documentary of great quality. It recounts a massacre against the Jews that has been forgotten in history and that is still not integrated into school curricula. For three days, between two and four thousand Jews were murdered in Lisbon. The bonfires were as high as houses, in a city full of dismembered bodies and where heads were paraded on the tips of spears. It was a time of the Black Death and so the city was unguarded in terms of security, since the king and the nobility had chosen to remain on the periphery. Ancient anti-Semitic myths led to disaster. All it took was a small spotlight, literally, to light the fuse that generated so much perdition. It was a popular initiative. The king severely repressed the guilty and the city itself withdrew all privileges.

"1618" - This documentary film has become the most internationally awarded in the history of Portuguese cinema. More than a hundred New Christians were arrested, causing terror in the New Christian community, mass emigration and the almost total destruction of the city's economy. The Inquisition is faithfully portrayed: its philosophy, the exhortation to denounce, the hatred and envy of the people as the engines of the accusations, the collaborators of the Inquisition, the prison carriages, the ghastly prisons, the life in the cells, the false prisoners who spied on other detainees, the secret crevices through which the jailer observed what was done and said, the fate of the prisoners, the torture, the public humiliation, the garroteting, the stake, the threatened future of so many innocents. A curious detail in this real story was the friction between the judicial authorities of and the inquisitorial visit. The relationship between these entities became so extreme that guards on horseback surrounded the ecclesiastical court. The Inquisitor, feeling disregarded, traveled to Spain to complain to King Dom Filipe, but did not hear what he wanted. The Justice of the time was independent and in that specific case it proved to be.

"The Nun's Kaddish" - This short film produced by the community portrays a true story of interfaith kindness that occurred in 1982, when a nun observed a Jewish memorial ritual on behalf of a deceased Jew, Emil Oppeneim, elevating the spirituality of the two religions to a higher feeling of universal brotherhood. The Jewish community of Porto, persecuted and destroyed by the State in the 1930s, was then practically non-existent. None of its members were present at the burial of Oppenheim, a renowned German jurist, who arrived in the city during the Nazi persecution. He remained in until the end of his life working in a small laundry. The kind nun, who had treated him when he was sick, promised to read the kaddish prayer in his and so she did.

"Sefarad" – It tells the story of Jews in since 1923, when a Portuguese army captain converted to Judaism, and about twenty Jewish merchants from Central and Eastern Europe officially founded the Jewish community in a city that had not heard about Jews for centuries. Soon the community found itself persecuted by Lisbon elites who made use of anonymous letters from outlaws to prosecute the captain, expel him from the army and destroy the community. The ‘Portuguese Dreyfus’ case, as it became known abroad, is shown in this film in some detail, as is the officer's trial. The film ends with the community that had been silent for many decades, when it finally rises again in the twenty-first century.

Film collection not yet complete

Asked if the Jewish Community of Porto has already finished its work producing historical films, Gabriel Senderowicz, the president of the organization, explains to PJN that “perhaps one day – with the help of benefactors – we can produce a film whose script is ready and which would unify in 90 minutes the founding of the Portuguese kingdom, the expulsion of the Jews, the defeat of Dom Sebastião and also a fictional perspective of what the country's future could have been in the 21st century with the help of Jews of Portuguese origin born in the Western and Euro-Asian blocs”.

According to Senderowicz, the history films the organization produced are part of its mission to promote Jewish history and stemmed from a broader strategic decision. “In general, there is a moral obligation within the Jewish diaspora to record and promote widespread knowledge of its past and present history. There is also a moral commitment from our community to Jews of Portuguese origin, whose low fees – in total, substantial resources – allowed us to produce a cinematic work that otherwise would never have been produced by anyone, whether due to lack of interest, lack of knowledge, or lack of funding. Finally, the history films we produced were an appropriate method to invest financial resources in something that could never end up in the hands of third parties or even the State. Jews have always been robbed everywhere. We are not naive, as we learn from the past. How do you steal history films? And museums? And cemeteries? It's impossible.”

Senderowicz states that the film “Sefarad” has some particularities that make it a truly special work, besides it was the first film of the set of six and many other videos produced by the Community. "The film Sefarad aimed to tell the true story of the 'CIP' association, founded in 1923, that is, the association that brought together the Ashkenazi community who for decades were forgotten by historians and even replaced by fictional characters. The film also gives a different perspective on the Captain Basto than usual, and in the suicide that unfortunately came to pass when he decided to welcome envious poor people in need of recognition at all costs. Throughout history, the state has tried to take advantage of the poor to harm the community.”