One year on from “sordid episode” “based on nothing” Porto Jewish Community wants public apology

Just over a year since mainstream media carried damning reports suggesting corruption within the Porto Jewish Community, the outraged community has issued an Open Letter to President Marcelo, calling on him to issue a public apology for what it believes to have been “shamefully instrumentalised accusations”.

“We know the Portuguese President is very sympathetic to the Jewish community and is a well-respected public figure, so such a pronouncement from his office will hopefully end this sordid episode,” says Gabriel Senderowicz, President of the Jewish community.

In the letter, the community describes everything that happened since March 11 last year as an anti-Semitic ‘witchhunt’.

The letter details how on that date, the Porto Synagogue, the Jewish Museum, and the houses of community leaders were “unlawfully invaded by a large number of police officers, based on anonymous denunciations by criminals”.

Marking the horror of the day, the community held what it called a “Day of Shame” on the first anniversary, by lighting the candles of a menorah in front of the Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue and launching a YouTube video titled “Soviet-style Antisemitism in Portugal”.

According to Gabriel Senderowicz, “the accusations against the Community were technically impossible, and the authorities knew they had no evidence of such charges.”

This was backed up, when, on 27th September last year, a Court of Appeals ruled the investigations were “based on nothing”.

As we wrote this text, the community did receive a reply from President Marcelo. But it was not what they were hoping for: the country’s head of State has passed the letter on to the government, saying it is up to the prime minister/ minister for foreign affairs to decide what to do.

With so much not really making sense, the community has decided to request an international investigation, says the president of the Porto Jewish community, “because those involved in this sinister plot are the first to want to dispel suspicions that they may have been involved in thefts, slanderous anonymous denunciations and even the attempted murder.

The Jewish Community of Oporto comprises around one thousand Jews who originate from 30 countries. It has three synagogues, a Holocaust Museum, a Jewish Museum, and kosher restaurants. This year, the Community will inaugurate its own cemetery, with the last one destroyed in 1497 at the time of the Edict of King Manuel I when the entire Portuguese Jewish community was forcibly converted and Judaism was banned in Portugal.

https://www.portugalresident.com/porto-jewish-community-calls-on-president-marcelo-to-set-record-straight/