Haym Solomon, Horace Günzburg, Nathan Rothschild, Moses Montefiore, Isaac le Maire, Laura Kadoorie, Abraham Salem. The United States, Russia, China, India, and the former British and Dutch empires would never have been great powers without the Jewish communities and their main benefactors. Another fact emerges regarding the aforementioned individuals, given that they are all of Portuguese origin.

The British Empire.

He wasn't the only one, but he's worth mentioning. The Iberian Sephardic origin of Moses Montefiore is documented. Although born in Livorno, in a commercial area where Portuguese was spoken, Montefiore belonged to a prominent Sephardic family established in London. His grandfather: Moses Vital. His mother: Rachel Mocatta. The Montefiore family were active members of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London, attending the Bevis Marks Synagogue, which holds their birth, marriage, and death records.

Another great name deserves at least a mention. Nathan Rothschild's Sephardic origins can also be verified through the marriage records and ancestral origins of his father (Mayer Amschel Rothschild) and mother (Guttle Schnapper), in addition to the fact that he married Hannah Barent-Cohen from the Portuguese-Spanish community of London based at the Bevis Marks Synagogue. Despite being of Ashkenazi origin, the Rothschild family was part of a European banking network that included strong ties to influential Sephardic communities in London, Paris, and Frankfurt. Records from the Judengasse (Frankfurt ghetto) of the 17th and 18th centuries reveal ancestors originating from the Iberian Peninsula.

The Dutch Empire.

He wasn't the only one, but he's worth mentioning. The assertion of Isaac le Maire's Iberian Sephardic origin is based on documentary evidence pointing to his involvement in the Sephardic commercial network of Antwerp and Amsterdam, although he was born in Tournai. After the fall of Antwerp in 1585, le Maire fled north, settling in Amsterdam, a typical migration pattern for Sephardic merchants seeking religious and commercial freedom. He operated in a powerful financial sphere where Sephardic Jews and merchants of Iberian origin played a dominant role.

The American superpower.

He wasn't the only one, but he's worth mentioning. The Iberian Sephardic origin of Haym Solomon is objective, because although he was born in Leszno, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he maintained Luso-Spanish Sephardic traditions, notably the use of Ladino and rituals distinct from the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. Thus was born the Mikveh Israel congregation in Philadelphia.

The Russian superpower.

He wasn't the only one, but he's worth mentioning. Horace Günzburg – the "Russian Rothschild" – also had Iberian origins, both through his mother Rosa Rasia Danin (daughter of Malka and granddaughter of Rosalie) and through his father (Joseph Gavrilovich Günzburg). Although the surname Günzburg has roots in Bavaria, indicating its origin in the city of the same name, genealogical sources associate the Günzburgs with the Porto family and with Jews originating from the Iberian Peninsula related to Mediterranean migratory flows in Italy. Their most famous ancestors – Abraham Menahem ben Jacob ha-Kohen Porto and his son Jehiel Porto – were students of Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen (a descendant of Rabbi Yosef Karo) in Pádua.

The Indian superpower.

He wasn't the only one, but he's worth mentioning. Abraham Barak Salem, the "Jewish Gandhi". a key Indian National Congress figure from Cochin, had Iberian roots. As a Cochin Jew, he belonged to a community with significant Sephardic influence. He was into the group of Cochin Jews classified as Paradesi Jews who are descendants of Ladino-speaking migrants from the Iberian Peninsula. Salem, a lawyer from Mattancherry, was a fervent supporter of Mahatma Gandhi, participated in the Lahore Congress session, and fought for India's independence as no one else.

The Chinese superpower.

She wasn't the only one, but she's worth mentioning. Laura Mocatta Kadoorie, Elly Kadoorie’s wife, was the foundational matriarch of an influential Jewish family in China. Alongside her husband and brother-in-law, they built a massive business empire in Shanghai and Hong Kong, focusing on utilities (CLP Group) and luxury hotels (The Peninsula), which became one of the most significant foreign business dynasties in China. Her family is considered one of the most important and influential families in Xangai, Hong Kong and China, often described as the wealthiest non-ethnic Chinese family. They have played a key role in the economic and infrastructural development of the southeastern coast of China for over two centuries.

The omnipresence of Portuguese Jewry

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, five centuries ago, the estimated world Jewish population was approximately one million. Based on the 120,000 Spanish Jews migrating to Portugal in 1492 as written by Abraham Zacuto and 75,000 native Portuguese Jews as argued by historians such as Lúcio de Azevedo, the total Jewish population in Portugal by 1496 would be approximately 200,000, assuming all migrants remained in the country. While some sources cite lower influx numbers, the data from Zacuto and Azevedo, particularly those of the first, given his extreme relevance in the Spanish Jewish elite of the time, highlights the massive strain the Jewish population placed on the existing Portuguese kingdom, which had a total population of approximately one million at the time.

This period followed significant demographic shifts, particularly the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal, which caused a mass Jewish migration for all continents where relevant Jewish communities existed. Mixed marriages between native Jews and newcomers tell the rest of the story. Over the generations, Portuguese origins spread to almost all Jewish families, the poorest and the richest.

The Strange Case of Leiva da Rocha

Portugal, 2022. Never before had so much nonsense been heard in such a short period of time. Never before had the term "ich" (son of) been so passionately pronounced in television debates. It was a "fraud"—everyone exclaimed. It was quite curious that Abel Benjamin Rocha da Leiva Leja Rosa Abramovich had his family history attested to by a Russian rabbi with an Iberian surname who works for the Chabad of Lubavitch, founded by the grandson of Rabbi Baruch Portugali. This all ended when a private organization accused the system of being corrupt itself and of not wanting Jews, nor the rich, nor Israelis, but rather unqualified immigrants. Abel is now the main symbol of a country great in the time of the Jews and which now languishes as if it were a madhouse left to its own devices.

The “Palestinian Question” in Portugal

To understand the "Palestinian question" that guided the entire Portuguese power system in 2022, and which has since led to the inauguration of the Hamas embassy in Lisbon, one only needs to listen to and read the so-called intellectuals with a public voice. Two simple examples condense the fundamental ideas of a vast multitude of liberals and communists roaming the public sphere.

Recently, Miguel Tavares, one of the system's "commentators" made a point of explaining the mainstream trends that today exploit a small country, without weapons and without resources that lives off the charity of others. "I do not accept that Portugal is granting nationality to citizens of Israel at a time when this country denies any rights to the Palestinian population," "Israel voluntarily sacrificed 1,200 of its citizens to carry out the massacre it is carrying out in Gaza," "more than 800,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza," "this will only end when Israel achieves a final solution," "you cannot claim to be the chosen people and victims of the Holocaust when you are promoting one in your own land," "there is a clear element of racism from Israel towards the Palestinians," "Israel is a terrorist state," "a criminal state that no criterion of decency can absolve," "Netanyahu is the greatest criminal on the face of the earth," or even "Europe's leaders are captured by the Israeli lobby," "Israel is at a level of barbarity, madness, insanity," "a state outside the law," "the entire people of Israel, or almost all of them, are in solidarity with them, in solidarity with a government of criminals," "the Holocaust is settled: the Jews of today have settled it, covering the name of Israel with shame."

The "Palestinian question" of the Portuguese liberal and communist nomenklatura did not begin now. Twenty years ago, the Nobel laureate communist José Saramago harshly criticized Israel, comparing the conditions in Palestinian territories to the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. He labeled Israeli actions as a "war of extermination," described the state as "totalitarian," and accused it of committing crimes against humanity. "What is happening in Palestine is a crime we can put on the same plane as what happened at Auschwitz," "a totalitarian state that aims only at the extermination of the Palestinians," "a sense of impunity characterises the Israeli people and its army", "these crimes were committed by the government with the applause of the Israeli people".

The "opulent" Jewish community

Porto is home to the only Jewish community in Europe that has fully implemented the European Commission's plan to promote life. The only one that has opened synagogues and a cemetery in recent years. The only one that oversees Jewish and Holocaust museums, having received 300,000 students from schools. The only one that produces award-winning history films on every continent. The only one with a painting gallery that tells its story and is integrated into a Jewish library with ten thousand works. The only one whose YouTube channel far exceeds 3 million views, when communities typically don't even surpass twenty thousand.

The Portuguese power system apparently didn't like this development, as the mainstream newspaper editorials described all the work done as "opulence." Meanwhile, two synagogues operating in harmony continue with a well-established minyan, the community cemetery was inaugurated, the museums remain full of children, and the community has produced two more history films.