On March 11, 2022, when the synagogue in Oporto, one of the largest in Europe, was invaded by Lisbon police, few knew that the investigation had begun exactly two months earlier and that it was based on anonymous letters populated by "demented generalities", as the Jewish Community of Oporto described them. There were searches, seizures, charges laid, and one arrest, which the targeted organization considered to be "totally illegal", with the aggravating factor that they were amplified by public statements in which the authorities claimed to be investigating "indications" of various "crimes", including criminal association, active corruption, money laundering and drug trafficking.

The general public and people of good faith believed that the investigators had something very strong to go on to search for something in a Jewish organization of enormous dimensions. The country was boiling. The Portuguese political press reported daily that the Community appeared to be involved in a “criminal scandal” and a "case of corruption".

Months before the Court of Appeal declared the case "based on nothing", the Community published that it was a "case of state corruption, with the great powers of society, in the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches and the political press strongly united in a persecution of the most significant Jewish entities in the country".

Today, January 11, 2025 it is three years since that criminal investigation saw the light of day. No one knows when it will end. Gabriel Senderowicz, president of the Oporto Jewish Community, made a prediction: "On our part it will never end, except when we see proof of honesty on the part of those who administer justice. Until that day, we will make revelations and discuss the honesty of the actions of our Community and its servers, of some individual with political power, of some members of the political press, or of some prosecution officials. All the actions to which I refer must be analyzed together, because they are umbilically linked".

The main points of the debate which the Community wishes to promote are summarised in a directive of the Oporto organisation to which the PJN had access. The transcripts below have been translated from Portuguese.

"Honesty of members of political power.

Was the nationality law destroyed by force? Was a 'Palestine-issue' the cause of the persecution? Were the political goals to prevent many Israelis from holding Portuguese nationality, to drive away the country's wealthiest Jews, and to destroy the strongest Portuguese Jewish community? Did the law only have negative effects? Did the Community of Oporto make the law to make money? Were the Community's certification criteria absurd? Was the Community of Lisbon a "wonder" and that of Oporto an "abuser"? Was the Community of Oporto illegitimate and lacking in quality? Were the political press and the Lisbon prosecutor's office used and pressured? Were thieves used to steal servers and computers, as well as car saboteurs to eliminate annoying voices? Has anyone spoken to someone to try to "incriminate" the Community and ridicule the law at all costs?

Honesty of the actions carried out by specific individuals of the political press.

Were the government's theses passionately followed? Has everything that could delegitimize and destroy the law and the Community and its leaders been freely published? Was there an obscene effort to assassinate the image of the Community? Has a political newspaper published 40 anti-Community news items without even listening to it? Were anonymous sources with interests at stake, from politicians to convicts and the mentally ill, treated obsequiously? Has all the cultural, religious and philanthropic work of the Community been silenced? Did the nationality law really only have negative effects? Was it silenced that all Jewish and Israeli organizations of the country collaborated with the parliament? Was it silenced that the main Jewish responsible for the drafting of the law was a lawyer and one of the leaders and certifiers of the "Wonder Community"? Did anyone try to destroy the image of the Community of Oporto and the nationality law at all costs and without any independence and impartiality?

Honesty of the actions carried out by specific criminal prosecution officials.

Is it true that the government asked the Lisbon prosecutor's office, whose leader it had appointed, to investigate anonymous complaints against the Jewish Community of Oporto? Had the Oporto prosecutor's office (2017) and the Oporto police (2021) already refused to even open an investigation based on generic anonymous complaints? Was there any document linking the Community to certificate sales, Patrick Drahi, corruption of registry offices, embezzlement and drug trafficking? Were there "indications of crime" – incriminating documents – to carry out searches, constitutions of defendants and an arrest? Did the authorities invoke a single concrete behavior of someone who fit the definition of "crime" provided for in article 1 of the code of criminal procedure? Is it possible to say that there were no "indications", nor "crime", much less "indications of crime"? Were the illegal searches aimed to steal everything to try to find something or, at least, cut out what could be used to discredit the targets? Has anyone spoken to anyone to have an "accusation" against the Community at all costs and without any independence and impartiality?

Honesty of the Community itself and its employees.

Is the organization served by legitimate, cultured leaders with an almost inexhaustible energy? What is the culturally strongest European Jewish organization? What is the organization whose Jewish and Holocaust museums have received 20% of the country's teenage population? What is the most internationally awarded film ever in a country where history films are not produced? What is the organization with two operating synagogues, restaurants, a cemetery and that has donated resources to Jewish communities in 14 countries? Had the organization asked the PSD government in 2013 to be an international commission to issue an opinion on the origins of the applicants? Did the organization inform the registry office in 2015 that its opinion did not call into question the final opinion of the registry office and the government? What damage did the Community suffer in 2022 – due to the action of the government, the political press and police investigators? Had the Community been also a target of political assassination in the 1930s?”

There seems to be a lot left to debate and write. The answers to all those questions will certainly be relevant for the future and for the public clarification that no one has ever wanted to do. Jewish communities around the world, historians and literati will not fail to focus on those questions and answers, which will be equally important for the definition of public policies in Europe.