The HIistory and LIFE of JEWS Community on Porto Tour and Museu holocausto do Porto

In the 1920s, several small communities still preserving secret Jewish practices, although with many Christian interference, were identified in Portugal. Artur Barros Basto (1887-1961), a captain of the Portuguese army and Jewish descent, had a key responsibility in the recovery of Judaism in Portugal. He was responsible for the construction of the Porto synagogue - the largest in the Iberian Peninsula - opened in 1939. In 1996, to remember the five centuries-long standing Jewish presence in Porto, a black granite headstone was erected on a wall of the Monastery of São Bento da Vitória. It remembers the Jews relevance in Porto city and their abrupt expulsion and/or forced conversion. In 2003, during some works in an old building located at number 9 of "Rua de São Miguel", hidden behind a wall, a "hekhal" or "aron" - the closet where the Torah was kept - was discovered. The Porto Holocaust Museum (MHP) was created in 2021 by the Jewish Community of Porto (CIP/CJP) in partnership with B'nai B'rith I