The Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue in Porto is widely highlighted as a unique and prominent symbol of contemporary Jewish revival and community growth in modern Europe.
Jewish rejuvenation is rare in modern Europe due to profound demographic loss, ongoing emigration to Israel and North America, and high rates of cultural assimilation. In Porto the opposite happens.
While a university project brought about five hundred young students from France, another project brought more than a thousand people. The community is satisfied, it does not need to grow further, but rather maintain and improve the structure it has and the existing achdut. The Community expanded infrastructure to include a second active prayer space, a cemetery, and two museums.
For decades following WWII and the persecution of its founder, the massive structure of the Kadoorie Mekor Haim synagogue sat almost underutilized.
Today, the Porto community's vitality and its ever surprising plans for immediate implementation make it a unique organization. There is nothing even remotely similar in Portugal, and it has also partnered with Chabad Lubavitch for the present and the coming decades.
