^{Jewish Museum of Oporto marks Edict of Expulsion anniversary with 1,000 teenagers}

The anniversary of the Edict of D. Manuel of 1496 that banned Judaism in Portugal was remembered this Thursday at the Jewish Museum of Oporto, Portugal, in the presence of about 1000 teenagers from schools in the North, Center and South of the country, who were able to see a vast collection about the long history of Jews in Portugal.

Throughout the day, students learned that Jews were present in the territory long before the founding of the kingdom in the twelfth century and that they were linked to its development. Gabriel Senderowicz, the president of the Jewish community of Oporto, reminded the young people that "the Jews played a role of the highest importance in the administration of the country and, with their scientific, cultural, commercial, economic capacity and mastery of many languages, they contributed to Portugal's diplomatic relations, to obtaining privileged information and obviously to the discoveries around the world that transformed a small kimgdom into an Empire with 13 million square kilometers."

^{Jewish Museum of Oporto marks Edict of Expulsion anniversary with 1,000 teenagers}

In turn, the director of the museum, Michael Rothwell, considered that the Edict was negative not only for the Jews, but also for Portugal. "The Edict caused the Jews to begin to leave the kingdom and to enrich other competing powers. A chain of facts even led to the loss of Portugal's independence in 1580, as can be seen from a rare object exhibited in the museum - the "Megillat Purim Sebastiano". It shows how the Moroccan Jewish community feared being converted back to Christianity by Dom Sebastião and, with the help of two Portuguese New Christians, gave decisive information for the Muslim armies to prepare for the clash. This resulted in the crushing defeat of the Portuguese nobility, the death of the king and, two years later, the loss of independence of the country, which passed into the hands of Spain."

Among the objects that stand out the most in the Jewish Museum of Oporto are Jewish objects of great value, paintings on the foundation and development of Portugal, the epigraph of a fourteenth-century synagogue, a memorial in honor of the last Gaon of Castile, Isaac Aboab, who died in Oporto and whose funeral was presided over by the rabbi and astronomer Abraão Zacuto, a prison cart of the Inquisition, a book by Friar de Torrejoncillo that assured that the Jews had a tail and a mural with about 900 names of Oporto residents victimized by the inquisition.

^{Jewish Museum of Oporto marks Edict of Expulsion anniversary with 1,000 teenagers}

The museum's cinema was also visited by the young students. The films "The Light of Judah", "The Lisbon Genocide" and "1618" were shown. They portray the immediate effects of Dom Manuel's Edict on the Portuguese Jewish community, the massacre of thousands of Jews in Lisbon and the action of the Inquisition in the city of Oporto.

Speaking to the teenagers about this last film, the museologist Hugo Vaz pointed out that "the municipal and judicial authorities of the city of Oporto opposed such inquisitorial persecution, and even ordered the siege of the ecclesiastical court by guards on horseback. This case, unprecedented in Portugal in the seventeenth century, led the Visitor Sebastião de Noronha to travel to Madrid to complain to King Dom Filipe".

^{Jewish Museum of Oporto marks Edict of Expulsion anniversary with 1,000 teenagers}

During the event, a message was read from the Israeli ambassador to Portugal, Oren Rozenblat, who was absent abroad but did not want to fail to convey kind words to the students on whom the future of the country, Europe and the world depends.

The Jewish Museum of Oporto, inaugurated in 2019 has been open for five years. However, for security reasons it is only open to schools and the national and international Jewish community, except for the European Day of Jewish Culture, on the first Sunday of September each year. On that day, it is open to the public, together with the Holocaust Museum and the Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue.