Today, the day is not used to welcome children from Portuguese schools, but rather to welcome the Jewish community and friends and show everyone the documentary Progrom(s) that was sponsored by CIP/CJP in 2023.
The documentary Pogrom(s), directed by French-Israeli filmmaker Pierre Rehov and produced by Lisa Magnas, can be described as a sobering historical and modern examination of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel. It reframes the massacre not just as an isolated act of terrorism, but within a broader, historical lineage of anti-Jewish violence.
Rehov was motivated to create the film after witnessing the international backlash against Israel, particularly pro-Palestinian university protests and statements from world leaders that he felt sought to justify or excuse the atrocities.
The documentary operates on the premise that the events of October 7 did not begin in a vacuum. It links the attack to historical hatred against Jews, Arab-Nazi collaboration, and past genocides aimed at purging Jews from the region.
The film heavily explores the massacre through the eyes of those who arrived first at the scenes of devastation. This includes individuals tasked with the harrowing work of retrieving, identifying, and handling the bodies of victims.
It highlights testimonies regarding widespread atrocities, including mutilation, sexual violence, and victims burned alive, contrasting the graphic reality captured on social media by the perpetrators against global denialism.
The narrative is driven by interviews with prominent security experts, human rights advocates, and historical figures, including Yossi Landau (ZAKA first responder), Mordechai Kedar (Scholar of Arabic literature and Islamist movements), Nitsana Darshan-Leitner (Israeli attorney and human rights activist), Michael Milstein (Palestinian studies expert), Yuval Bitton (Former head of the Israel Prison Service intelligence division), and Richard Rossin (Former head of Doctors Without Borders)
The film was released around the first anniversary of the attacks and is available for streaming on platforms such as Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Tubi TV, and Google Play.
The October 7 attack against the Jews followed a model that history records everywhere, even in Portugal.
