The Jewish world always regenerates itself everywhere, even in the most unexpected latitudes. The case finds a good example in the regeneration of the Jewish community in Porto, Portugal.
At every celebration at the Kadoorie synagogue, a hundred children up to 12 years old gather on the top floor, in a kind of "Jewish Disneyland" created especially for them, with balloons, trampolines, youthful masks, face painting, and plenty of age-appropriate food.
Weekly, a hundred teenagers join the community's hatzofim (scouts) team and are increasingly united in defending Jewish values. In recent months, the Israeli ambassador Oren Rozenblat has visited Porto twice to observe their activities and explain the rules of Jewish success.
In addition, what is particularly impressive is the community of 400 Jewish university students who meet daily at the study center that the community created for this purpose. Every summer, when the young people return to France and Israel, marriages between them usually take place. Young people whom their parents once thought were "lost to Judaism" return home much more identified with and faithful to Jewish values than they were before arriving in Porto.
In total, six hundred children, teenagers, and young adults mark a promising future for Jews in Porto. According to Sephardic Rabbi Yoel Zekri, one of the rabbis of the Kadoorie synagogue, "it wasn't long ago that I could count the children in the community on the fingers of one hand, but today the voices of a new generation echo through the city of Porto. It is now natural to hear Jewish children and young people speaking Hebrew and Portuguese. One can say that a new generation of Portuguese Jews has been born, full of hope for the future."
