It was the 19th century. The Jews had long been forced to leave the Portuguese kingdom, but the monarchs continued to seek their assistance in numerous diplomatic spheres and hard-to-reach regions. Multilingual men of great moral and intellectual stature served the interests of the kingdom. Consul Salomão Amsalak (Jerusalém), Vice-Consul Salomão Amsalak (Jaffa), Vice-Consul Isak de Josef Semama (Susa, Tunísia), Vice-Consul Isaac Moisés Nahon (Casablanca), Vice-Consul José Benatar (Rabat), Vice-Consul of Portugal Abraham Hassan (Tetouan). This Jewish diplomatic network extended into the early and mid-20th century, of which a prominent example is the Portuguese Consul Salomão Arditti (Salonica).
Historically, Portugal is considered an essential pillar of Western Judeo-Christian civilization. During its formative and imperial eras, the kingdom was defined by a profound, intertwined heritage of Christian theology and Jewish intellectual and economic contributions. For Portuguese Jews, the arrival of communism directly from Moscow and Beijing was a disgrace. Communism's relationship with Portugal, Christians, Jews and the Jewish state has been always of intense ideological opposition.
Isaac M. Nahon was a prominent figure and an important Sephardic banker and diplomat in Morocco in the late 19th century. His activities are linked to Tangier and Casablanca, during a period when Jewish consular families played a key role in Luso-Moroccan relations. Nahon became widely known in North Africa as an influential banker and honorary consul/representative. His activities extended through a network of prominent families that facilitated economic transit between Morocco and European countries, including Portugal, Spain, and Italy (where he was knighted by the Italian Crown).
Abraham Hassan was a prominent Sephardic Jewish diplomat and businessman in Tetouan, Morocco, who played a crucial role in the region's international relations in the mid-19th century. He simultaneously served as vice-consul of Portugal and Spain in the city. He held the official post of Portuguese vice-consul in Tetouan for several decades (with explicit records in the 1850s and 1860s). In 1856, during a private visit by the King Consort of Portugal, Ferdinand II, to the Moroccan city, Hassan personally welcomed the monarch to his official residence located in the Mellah (the walled Jewish quarter of Tetouan). The Hassan family had very deep historical ties to the Portuguese-speaking world and Gibraltar. Years later, in 1895, their family lineage moved to Tangier, where they founded the prominent Banque Hassan. During World War II, their descendant Joe Hassan (who retained Portuguese citizenship) assumed leadership of the Jewish Junta of Tangier and used his diplomatic influence with the regime of Francisco Franco to intercede in saving Jews from the Holocaust.
José Benatar was a prominent merchant of Jewish-Moroccan (Sephardic) origin who held the position of Vice-Consul of Portugal in Rabat, Morocco. In the 19th century, Portugal maintained a network of consular representations in Morocco to protect its commercial interests and maritime navigation. The post in Rabat was structured as a Vice-Consulate. The Benatar (or Benata) family were part of the influential Moroccan Jewish merchant elite. Due to their local prestige and multilingualism, they were frequently chosen by foreign powers such as Portugal, Spain, Belgium, and Brazil to act as consular agents and diplomatic intermediaries in the region. Shortly after José Benatar's tenure, Jacob Raphael Benatar was also appointed to the same Vice-Consulate, in addition to holding positions for other countries and maintaining strong ties with Jewish migration to Brazil (Pará and Amazon). He is officially registered as the Portuguese vice-consul in Rabat in 19th-century diplomatic listings (with documented activity around 1869). Years later, other family members remained involved in diplomacy in the region. Jacob Raphael Benatar is documented in the early 20th century (appointed around 1907) as vice-consul in Rabat, combining commercial and diplomatic functions.
The well-known Jewish family Semama (also spelled Chemama, Shamama, or Scemama) has roots in the Iberian Peninsula. Many families with this surname who settled in North Africa over the centuries are descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from Portugal and Spain in 1492 and 1497. As a descendant of a Sephardic lineage, Isak de Josef Semama, who served as vice-consul in Susa (Sousse), Tunisia, shares this historical heritage. His family was part of the community known as "granas" (or Livornese), originating from migrations from the western Mediterranean.
Solomon Amsalak served as Consul of Portugal in Ottoman Palestine, helping to protect the local Jewish community through the system of "capitulations" (foreign diplomatic protection). His brother Haim Amzalak (1828-1916) served as British vice-consul in Jaffa (officially appointed in 1872) and simultaneously as honorary consul of Portugal in Jerusalem (from 1871) and later in Jaffa (between 1886 and 1892). He was the son of Joseph, born in Gibraltar, who settled in Jerusalem around 1816. Haim and his family lived in a large house near Jaffa.
Moses Montefiore, a British philanthropist with Portuguese roots and a longtime friend of the family, was impressed by a dinner served in the best European style at the Amzalak home by multilingual waiters. "All this could have made us forget that we were in the Holy Land, if we hadn't been reminded of it from time to time, either by the suffocating heat or the bite of an intruding mosquito," he wrote.
Like his father, Haim Amzalak worked in the banking business with Ya'akov Valero, a member of another prominent Sephardic family. He was among the Jewish pioneers buying land around Jaffa, both for housing and for planting orange groves. As a foreigner with diplomatic status, Amzalak was able to legally register lands in his name intended for new settlers, such as in Rishon LeZion, since the Ottoman Empire imposed severe restrictions and prohibitions on the acquisition of property by foreign Jews. In these regions (Ottoman Empire and Morocco), local Jews who held European consular positions obtained protected status, which gave them tax immunity, legal protection, and physical protection against laws and abuses by local authorities.
Haim Amzalak used his fortune to finance the establishment and construction of the first colonies, such as Rishon LeZion itself and Petah Tikva. He worked In the financial and banking sector, partnered with the influential Valero family. His residence in Jaffa was a central meeting point for European dignitaries and important figures. The responsibility of managing and expanding the efforts initiated by Amzalak would later be continued by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845–1934), known as Hanadiv (The Benefactor) who later left a direct mark on Portugal by acquiring the land where the Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue, located in Porto, would be built.
Salomão Arditti, the Portuguese consul in Salonica responsible for issuing passports to save hundreds of Jewish families during the Holocaust, was himself a member of the Sephardic community of Salonica. Although detailed diplomatic records about his birth are scarce, Salomão Arditti was born in Greece in the 19th century, that at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire and had a vibrant and historic Jewish population. As consul, he became known for his tireless dedication, even going so far as to buy new printing presses just to print passports more quickly and with higher quality to protect the persecuted.
