July, 2026. Abstract joint plans are being developed by the Porto City Council and the city's Jewish community. The year 2027 promises to be a fruitful year for news on this matter.
The current president of the Municipality Pedro Duarte recognizes Porto's strong Jewish community as a source of pride for the city due to its remarkable revival, deep historical roots, and the city's status as a beacon of cultural preservation.
Porto's Jews were known in the past for controlling the economy and paying 30% of the city's taxes. Also the fact that the community is a current world leader in promoting Jewish culture has a huge impact on the municipality's sensitivity.
The Jewish revival in the city allows locals to connect with the deep medieval roots of the city that features the breathtaking Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue, the largest Jewish house of worship in the Iberian Peninsula.
The Porto central synagogue serves as a major symbol of the city's diverse and growing cultural fabric. The community also operates the Jewish Museum of Porto and the Holocaust Museum. These institutions draw thousands of visitors, promote tolerance, and establish Porto as the leading European center for the preservation of Jewish history.
At the height of their power in the mid-1800s, the Rothschild combined fortune was arguably the largest the world had ever seen. Over generations, the original fortune has been divided among hundreds of heirs, taxes, and extensive philanthropic donations.
When in the 1920s the Rothschild family purchased the synagogue land for "19 contos", this amount was equivalent to four years' wages for a common Portuguese worker. Today, the national minimum wage in Portugal is 920 euros gross per month, paid over 14 months, so the total amount collected over a four-year period reaches approximately 50,000 euros gross.
The Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue in Porto was partially funded and built by the wealthy Hong Kong-based Kadoorie family as a tribute to their father, Sir Elly Kadoorie, and their mother, Lady Laura Mocatta Kadoorie, who was a descendant of Sephardic Jews from Portugal.
