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Took a Jewish tour of Lisbon this morning.
Not the happiest story ever told...
Not the happiest story ever told...
Though there are always good men.
I was moved by the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, who defied Salazar's orders by issuing entry visas to thousands of Jews seeking to escape Vichy to Portugal and died disgraced and penniless for his trouble
I was moved by the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, who defied Salazar's orders by issuing entry visas to thousands of Jews seeking to escape Vichy to Portugal and died disgraced and penniless for his trouble
Until today there are still issues getting the government to acknowledge the extent of Jewish history in Portugal and the light this would throw on certain events.
The monastery of Jeronimos, a gargantuan and architecturally magnificent structure in Belem, received some of its early stones from the remains of the grand synagogue of Lisbon, once there were no more Jews in Lisbon, by fiat...
The city's grand, placid squares nearly all bear dark tales. In a way I am glad I only did the Jewish trip near the end of my stay here.
This whole continent is full of ghosts. At least the ones in Lisbon are old.
This whole continent is full of ghosts. At least the ones in Lisbon are old.
But oh what a golden age the Jews once had here! Wealth, respect, the king's favor as his educated administrative class, and most of all, the men who walked these streets: Don Isaac Abravanel, R'Avraham Zacuto, Menasheh Ben Israel, R'Yitzchak Karo...
