Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel received a copy of the book "Two Two Millennia of the Jewish Community of Oporto, Chronology 1923-2023". The statesman wrote to the Community to thank the book about the "the long history of your distinguished community" and remembered that his father Benzion Netanyahu "dedicated much of his academic career to studying the golden age of Jewish culture in your region - and its tragic aftermath." For this reason, he wrote - "I have a special interest in the Jews of Medieval Spain and Portugal".
Benzion Netanyahu, one of the greatest Jewish historians of all time, field of expertise was the history of the Jews in Spain and Portugal, and he considered the Marranos to be lost forever. He was an editor of the Hebrew Encyclopedia, and had three sons: Yonatan Netanyahu, ex-commander of Sayeret Matkal and killed in Entebbe, Iddo Netanyahu, a physician, and the current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Last November, the Jewish Community of Oporto invited Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the "Yonathan Room" at the Jewish Museum of the city. "When you're traveling to Europe, please make an effort to visit the "Yonathan Room" at the Jewish Museum of Oporto, where all the strength of Am and Eretz Israel is deposited", wrote Gabriel Senderowicz, the President of the Jewish Community of Oporto.
In partnership with B'nai B'rith International, the Jewish Museum of Oporto dedicated a room to the Thunderbolt Operation. The initiative aimed to bring young Jews closer to Israel.
Senderowicz remembered that "Lieutenant Colonel Yonathan Netanyahu teaches us that the Jews must never leave their security in anyone else’s hands but their own. A new pogrom, a new Inquisition or a new Holocaust are impossible as long as the state of Israel exists."
"The Jewish Community of Oporto will continue to cooperate with Eretz Israel, with Keren Hayesod and with religious, cultural, educational and social institutions in the small-big state, regardless of whether or not there is reciprocity", he added.
