The Porto Jewish Museum continues to tell the story of Jews in Portugal from very ancient times until today. Modern era also occupy a good part of the space and are constantly receiving new elements that stand out for justifiable reasons. This time, the museum announced that in February it will receive an epigraph dedicated to an unusual project that the community carried out for eight years.
Between 2016 and 2022, the Jewish Community of Oporto provided products for Shabbat meals to synagogues in Jerusalem, New York, London, Moscow, Odessa, Shangay, Sydney, New Delhi, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Ashdod and Johannesburg that distributed them to local needy families. The community's purpose was to support the creation and development of Jewish life and promote a better, fairer and more equitable world. Shabbat is a festive day when Jews exercise their freedom from the regular labours of everyday life. It offers an opportunity to contemplate the spiritual aspects of life and to spend time with family. Traditionally, three festive meals are eaten.
In 2016, to illustrate that project, the Jewish Community of Porto even photographed a large truck in front of the Kadoorie synagogue, as if it were ready to depart on a long journey. However, the Community has always worked directly through Chabad Lubavitch emissaries in countries that have benefited from aid. Founded in Russia by a grandson of rabbi Baruch Portugali, Chabad is the most dynamic force in Jewish life of the Diaspora, a philosophy, a movement, and an organization with over 4,500 full-time emissary families who lead institutions dedicated to the welfare of the Jewish people worldwide.
The Shabbat meals project was suspended in 2022 when the Portuguese state then led by socialists and communists of Soviet philosophies decided that it would define for itself what Jewish life, Jewish religion, Jewish culture, and Jewish philanthropy should be. State antisemites called "Jewish life" a skeleton with a plate adapted to their interests. The system defined everything good as bad, and everything bad as good. And so, everyone lost something substantial. Impoverished families lost the meals they so desperately needed. The community lost its joy and good reputation. Chabad lost one of its major cooperation projects. The Portuguese state became mired in a "Palestinian issue" that can never be considered a gain.
The new epigraph will be another factor of interest for tourists. The shocking story dates back not to 1497, but to the 21st century.
