Today's Hebrew date is 23 Av 5786. While this date does not mark a singular, independent event unique to Portugal, the Hebrew month of Av is deeply somber and historically significant for Portuguese Jews.
Historically, the Alhambra Decree expelling all Jews from neighboring Spain took effect on July 31, 1492. This tragedy forced 120,000 Spanish Jews to flee directly across the border into Portugal to seek refuge, completely reshaping the demographics and history of the Portuguese kingdom overnight.
However, a sad end was promised to them and their Portuguese brothers. The primary tragedies that befell the Jews in Portugal between July 1, 1492, and December 5, 1496, include mass enslavement, the forced kidnapping and deportation of their children, and a royal decree of total expulsion.
King João II granted the vast majority of Spanish Jews only a temporary eight-month stay in exchange for a hefty tax. When the time expired and available shipping transport failed to materialize, the King declared all remaining refugees royal slaves, forfeiting their basic human liberties.
In early 1493, the King enacted a brutal policy targeting the newly enslaved families. He ordered approximately 2000 Jewish children to be forcibly ripped from their parents. These children were deported to the remote, uninhabited island of São Tomé off the West African coast to help clear wilderness for sugar plantations, where the vast majority tragically perished from starvation, neglect, and wild predators.
On December 5, 1496, seeking to secure a politically powerful marriage to Princess Isabella of Spain, King Manuel I succumbed to demands from the Spanish Catholic Monarchs to rid Portugal of its Jewish population. On December 5, 1496, he signed the fateful Edict of Expulsion, giving all Jews exactly 10 months to convert to Catholicism or leave the country under penalty of death and asset forfeiture. This ultimately set the stage for the traumatic, state-enforced mass forced baptisms of 1497.
