A museum dedicated to the history of the Jews of Porto, a city in the north of Portugal, was opened to the public.
The museum, which is housed on the first floor of the Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue, tells the story of 900 years of Jewish presence in the city.Visitors can learn about Jewish culture, history and religion..
Among the items on display at the museum is a replica of an inscription on the foundation stone of the synagogue which opened in 1380 in Porto and a list of 842 names of people tortured for ‘’heretical Jewish practices’’ during the Inquisition, the systematic persecution of Jews led by the churches and royal houses of Portugal and Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries. The oldest victim was 110 years old. The youngest victim was a mere 10 years of age.
One of the museum’s three rooms is made to resemble a Sephardic yeshiva, or religious seminary.
The museum’s collection is replete with Jewish artifacts and relics and aims to promote Jewish culture, tradition, religion and history in a city that has previously had little or nothing relating to Jews in its museums.
In a statement to the Portuguese press, Michael Rothwell, the Community member who is responsible for the museum, considered it to be "the obligation of the Jewish community in Oporto to help the population of the city revive the Jewish past, with respect for historical truth and without resentment or fantasy."
Also on display are numerous original documents and objects relating to the ‘’Rescue» of crypto-Jews’’ that were still to be found in Portugal until a few decades ago and to the shelter the community provided to hundreds of refugees during WWII.
The museum gives also preminence to where the Jews lived.
Captain Barros Basto, the founder of the Jewish community, is one of the symbols of the museum, which takes account of his recent moral rehabilitation by Portuguese Parliament and his military rehabilitation by the Army, which reconstructed his career and acknowledged his rank as Colonel since 1945.
In the previous century, the army captain started an outreach program for the descendants of conversos, or Jews who had been converted. Basto paid for his actions with his career and his reputation.