July is vacation time, but not for everyone. Jewish Museum of Porto officials still demand that the Portuguese Ministry of Education teaches the history of Jews in the country. The museum has historically criticized the Ministry for purging Jewish history and the impacts of the Inquisition from standard textbooks, prompting the community to step in and offer educational resources to supplement what is taught in public schools.
While small towns like Bragança, Tomar, and Belmonte form an alternative network for teaching Jewish history outside the capital, Porto’s educational initiatives are national, not localized. The Jewish museum in Porto specifically shapes how Jewish history is taught across all of Portugal.
The Jewish Community of Porto has established itself as the country's main hub for Jewish education, step-by-step building an expansive educational network that reaches students across the country. Porto features a fully integrated campus including the Jewish Museum of Porto (opened in 2019), the Holocaust Museum of Porto (opened in 2021), and the historic Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue.
In the meantime, Lisbon remains one of the few EU capitals without a completed physical Jewish museum. The project is stagnant and immersed in immobilizing issues for three decades.
