Antisemitism chronology (2011-2024)

2011

The official newspaper of a political party that has always had a seat in the Assembly of the Republic published opinion articles about the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. A decade has passed since then. These publications are still available online on the newspaper’s website, guaranteeing that the “conspiracy network being set up on earth clearly originates in openly religious capitalist formations. The truth is that behind this horrific plan are the Zionists, the Vatican and the Freemasons”.

2014

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) commissioned an opinion poll on Portuguese territory and concluded that there were at least 1,8 million Portuguese with antisemitic feelings. The Jews are hated for their behaviour (25%), the Jews only care about themselves (26%), the Jews consider themselves better than others (21%), the Jews are very powerful (43%), the Jews are influential in the financial markets (43%), the Jews control world business (21%), the Jews control the United States Government (23%), the Jews control the media (17%), the Jews are responsible for most wars (15%), the Jews are more loyal to Israel than to Portugal (56%), the Jews talk too much about the Holocaust (49%), the Jews exaggerate the number of deaths (10%), and the Holocaust is a myth (1%).

In 2014 the Anti-Defamation League concluded that 1.8 million Portuguese revealed anti-Semitic feelings. There were no anti-Semitic offences for nothing justified them: the national Jewish community, then numbering some 600 people, was totally irrelevant.

However, by the force of the 2013/2015 legislation promoting the return of Sephardic Jews, the Jewish community grew significantly. This was followed by exponential growth in antisemitism.

2016

An overview of Facebook accounts, newspaper and blog comment sections showed that latent antisemitism is very much alive, expressed in thousands and thousands of violent and aggressive messages against “the Jews”. Hand in hand with exaggerated, astonishing stories, making no distinction between Jews and alleged Jewish descendants, the famous invectives of the past are the same as those used today, centuries later: “It’s the worst race on Earth”, “they are foreigners”, “they wish to divide the Portuguese”, “go to Israel”.

The Board of CIP/CJP was worried about this situation and having considered that educating people about the Jews would be the best way to prepare future generations, it asked the Government to ensure that “schools gave lessons on the Holocaust”, and to “expedite the appropriate mechanisms for secondary school history textbooks to include, however briefly, the presence of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula in general and in Portugal in particular.”

Said letter went unanswered, but it also says: “Having consulted, for instance, the Year 5 textbook on the “History and Geography of Portugal”, which had a large print run and was produced in accordance with the curricular goals in force, we note that the Jews are expurgated from the history of the territory that is now Portugal. Mention is made of the primitive hunter-gatherers, the agropastoral communities, the Celts, the Iberians, the trading peoples (Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians), the Romans, the Visigoths, the Muslims, and so on… all except the Jews. An explanation is given about Christianity (p. 60), Islamism (p. 69) and mention is even made of pagan worship (p. 45). Not a word about Judaism. In the context of the benefits of the Islamic presence in the Iberian Peninsula, there is a quotation from Maimonides (p. 74), as if he were a Muslim, when in fact he was one of the most reputable figures of medieval Judaism. Without once referring to the Jews, there is mention of the burghers of Portugal (merchants and artisans) of the 13th and 14th centuries – (p. 112) –, who “attended the schools that existed close to cathedrals and monasteries or were taught privately (by priests and monks)”. No reference is made to the Jewish schools… attended by the major burghers of the kingdom: the Jews. The book says that in the 14th century in Europe “some believed that the Jews were responsible for every evil, accusing them of poisoning fountains and wells” (p. 121), and no reference is made to the terrible genocides occasioned by such proclamations, such as in Spain in 1391, for instance. It is all summed up in “some believed”. In the reign of King D. Manuel, his life is outlined, together with his decision to “continue the enterprise of the Discoveries” (p. 144), without a single reference to the Edict of Expulsion of 1496, one of the most important decisions in the history of Portugal and the world. As regards the settlement of S. Tomé and Príncipe, the book informs that it was carried out “with Portuguese and Black slaves from Guinea and the Congo” (p. 153), which is true, although it leaves out the young settlers of the late 15th century: hundreds of Jewish children (taken from their parents) who were sent to the island in 1493, by order of King D. João II. There are myriad details about the reign of King D. João III, such as “the Portuguese began taking African slaves to Brazil” (p. 159) but no mention of the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal (1536), which had such major consequences not only on the history of Portugal but on the history of the world.

2017

The construction in Cascais of the Chabad Centre, a venue for religion, culture and leisure similar to others in some of the most prestigious and tolerant cities of the world was opposed by noisy residents. They wished the plot of land to be turned into a garden, although thus far it had been nothing but a construction site and before that, merely open ground belonging to the Catholic Church.

Residents in Alfama contested the creation of the Jewish Museum of Lisbon, an initiative of Lisbon City Hall and the Israeli Community of Lisbon. They had chosen Largo de São Miguel (São Miguel Square) because it was a “symbolic place” for Judaism, the site of the old Jewish quarter of Alfama, where there is still a Rua da Judiaria (Street of the Jewish Quarter) today. It was claimed that “it would break with the tradition of the neighbourhood” and “deface Largo de São Miguel”, which houses the eponymous church.

Stones were thrown at the windows on the north façade of Oporto synagogue during the night. Thirteen glass panes were broken. Following this incident, more security cameras were installed around the building, overlooking the land outside the community property, in order to prevent similar deeds and meticulously identify future perpetrators who throw stones.

CIP/CJP created an Antisemitism Observatory to observe and monitor in real time antisemitism on Portuguese territory, choose ways to reduce or eliminate the prejudice against Jews and the Jewish communities, draw up scientific opinions and reports for information and action, if necessary, by the competent supervisory authorities, raising political parties’ awareness of the need to perfect the existing legislation and promote suitable school curricula.

2018

To please the anti-Israel "Boycott, Divest and Sanctions" (BDS) movement, a MEP named Ana Gomes defamed the Jewish organizations as a "very perverse lobby".

A request was addressed to the Assembly of the Republic to alter the legal type of crime of “Discrimination and incitement to hate and violence” set out in Article 240 of the Penal Code, so as to include the Jews in the long list of those protected from incrimination. Again, there was no reply.

CIP/CJP informed the Portuguese Government about the growth of antisemitism and added that if nothing were done, sooner or later the Portuguese Jews would be subject to violence by a small but furious percentage of antisemites. The Community expressed its willingness to contribute to the development of a national strategy to fight antisemitism and protect the Portuguese Jewish communities.

The Community produced a feature film entitled “Sefarad”, which tells the story of the Jews in Portugal since the time of the Edict of Expulsion in the 15th century to the present day, with particular focus on antisemitism and anonymous accusations such as destroyed Captain Barros Basto. One of the scenes in “Sefarad” was shot near the village of Vilarinho dos Galegos, in Mogadouro, where Marranos lives for decades. One villager present at the scene disclosed that the Marranos were known to have a tail. This idea, linked to devils, had been published in the 17th century by Friar Francisco de Torrejoncillo, in his work “Sentinela contra os Judeus”. The author’s opinion has reached the 21st century in Portugal.

2019

Bearing in mind that the voluntary or imposed seclusion of Jews has always created fertile ground for antipathy, CIP/CJP inaugurated the Jewish Museum of Oporto to create the image of an open religious community. The new Museum was designed to spread Hebrew culture and promote philosemitism. A large plaque was attached to the door which says the following “Throughout the world, wherever a Jew finds a Portuguese, let him help him; and where a Portuguese finds a Jews, let him help him, too”.

During the opening speech at the Museum, to the Jewish community, the President of Bnai Brith International told the more than 150 Jews present: “This Jewish Museum will arouse interest in Jewish life in Portugal and serve as a beacon of light for the rest of Europe, now obscured by resurgent antisemitism”.

On 10 June, CIP/CJP formally contacted Oporto’s Public Security Police (PSP) with a view to hiring a police officer to be paid by the Community. To everyone’s shock, the PSP said that it did not consider this necessary and was opposed to placing any police officer at the Museum, given that there were no security risks.

The Government was informed of this event and of the security measures taken at Jewish museums throughout Europe: Madrid, London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and others. The terrorist cell that murdered people in the Jewish Museum in Brussels had travelled from France. Again, there was no reply. This Museum has never opened to the public, as the Community fears a bloodbath.

For security reasons, the Jewish Museum of Oporto has never opened to the general public. It exclusively serves the Portuguese and international Jewish community, schools and teachers.

2020

A Portuguese cartoonist published an antisemitic cartoon showing the Prime Minister of Israel wearing an armband similar to those worn by the Nazis but with a Star of David instead of a swastika. The Prime Minister is shown pushing a casket covered in the Palestinian Authority flag into a furnace, above which are the same words as those over the famous gate at Auschwitz, “Arbeit macht frei”, which means “Work sets you free”.

Setting a transition period “up to 1 January 2022”, a group of influential people in Portugal tried to end the Nationality Law in favour of Portuguese Sephardic Jews, by means of a defamation campaign against the Jewish communities involved in the certification process. Without being able to single out one wrong case and omitting any positive effect of the law, these people spread hate on social media, using their journalist friends, media agents, columnists and professional slanderers to launch stereotypes against the Jewish communities ("material interests", "business", "money"), suspicion (“the Sephardim merely want passports of convenience”), exaggerations ("there are tens of millions of candidates”), anti-Jewish feeling ("the Sephardim are married and children are constantly being born"), slander (“to obtain citizenship applicants need only pay thousands of euros to genealogists, lawyers and Portuguese Jewish communities”), forgeries (taking sentences from the Communities’ official websites and twisting their meaning), lies ("the law requires a Portuguese or Ladino name") and anti-Israel feeling (condemning the abusive publicity in the State of Israel but not in other countries). Documents and audio recordings of all this are available.

People within the Portuguese State apparatus alleged millions in profits earned by the certifying communities and silenced the billions of euros brought by the Sephardim to the Portuguese economy, as well as the promotion of the Jewish religion, Jewish culture and social philanthropy. In the meantime, the emoluments charged by the certifying communities in Portugal are the same as the emoluments charged by the Portuguese Registry Office, whom no one accuses of making millions in profits.

2021

The Jewish Community of Oporto felt the need to open a Holocaust Museum of Oporto, which it did in a mere two months. The entire security and protection team is paid by CIP/CJP. To minimise the terrorist threat, the Museum only operates for a short period of time on working days.

A former April 25 captain wrote on Twitter: "As they dominate world finance, the Jews bought and possess as many vaccines as they wanted. It is a sort of historical revenge. And I’ll say no more else the Zionist bulldogs react”. Yet another episode of antisemitism by an influencer, to add to all the other episodes of recent years.

In a communiqué, CIP/CJP said that “Rather than condemning antisemitic opinions by influential people in Portuguese society, it should be noted that the State neither prevents nor punishes the spread of such stereotypes which in the past gave rise to the genocide of the world Jewish population and in the present jeopardises the respectability and security of Jews in general and Jewish communities in particular. The latter simultaneously have to guarantee and pay for the protection of members, properties, synagogues, museums and cemeteries”.

In Cascais, near the Chabad Centre, the post in Rua Aristides Sousa Mendes was overturned. In Oporto, the façade of a Jewish family’s home was vandalised in red paint, including the mezuzah. The head of that family had complained at his daughter’s school that a young boy had complained because “the Jews are killing children in Palestine".

A French university student, a Jew living in Oporto, was threatened by an Arab colleague, also living in this city, without the slightest provocation except that he was Jewish. The colleague turned up at his door accompanied by a pit-bull and said that he did not want to hear a sound.

A political party said that it wished to forbid the ritual slaughter of animals. This is happening all over Europe. Several groups have lobbied to pressure parliaments and governments to forbid shechita and brit milah, resuscitating old techniques against the Jess aimed at covertly expelling them. This is not a discussion about the right States have of declaring this or that practice as being illegal, but rather the fundamental right of religious freedom and long-term sustainability of the European Jewish communities.

On 20 May, a group belonging to the German antifascist “Anti Faschistishche Aktion” pasted stickers of this organisation on Oporto synagogue, linking it to fascism. The group is also suspected of preparing to vandalize the Holocaust Museum in this city. Indeed, some of its members were identified inside the space the day before the action against the synagogue.

2022

People from the Portuguese government used journalists, influencers, anonymous accusers, anonymous sources and Lisbon prossecutors and police to end the Sephardic law and bring down the leaders of the Jewish Community of Oporto, the strongest in Portugal and the only one that exclusively certified Jews. No one has escaped a kind of "purification". From religious to secular leaders, presidents, ex-presidents, vice-presidents, treasurers, members and secretaries, not forgetting the museologist and the doorman.

In the 21st century, in two hundred countries in the world, no Jewish community has been so unjustly and fiercely treated, an unprecedented union of mainstreams, which destroyed the respectability of the organisation, civically assassinated its leaders, derided Jewish families who have lived for a century in Oporto, lending credibility to slanderers.

Those who promoted political games, fake news and illegal searches knew that they would become public knowledge and would provoke hatred and discrimination against the Jewish Community of Oporto for a long time. That's exactly what happened. There were lists of Jewish businessmen published in the newspapers, posters at demonstrations for better housing railing against “murderous Zionist landlords”. The synagogue was vandalized, and thousands of hate messages were sent. The wording of the messages included: “Mafia organisation”, "corruption", "gang of sell-outs", "they’re into schemes", "these people were never trustworthy", "history speaks for itself", "even religion", "an Israeli would rather lose a friend than one euro", "Weren’t the Jews always like that?", "chased away from everywhere", “the Rabbi is corrupt”, "it stretches from the Rabbi to the owners of Chelsea and Altice", "they are what they’ve always been, criminals", "even the creation of Israel is based on the same imaginary assumption that they are entitled to the land”, "Israel has carte blanche to do what it wants in Palestine", "it’s always confused me that a Portuguese community should adopt as its name that of a foreign, Israeli community".

2023

Anti-Judaism, anti-Israelism and anti-Jewish success continue unabated. Oporto’s synagogue is defaced with inscriptions of “Apartheid” and sees its members identified with the conflicts in the Near East. Jewish restaurants and companies with ties to Israel are subject to vandalism and the same goes for Lisbon Town Hall, which was painted blood-red, because the mayor defends Israel. Teachers in schools attended by Jewish children call Israel a “racist State”. A newspaper of the Lisbon elites, called “Expresso”, publishes antisemitic articles and does not publish the rights of reply from the Jewish community. Another newspaper of the jaded elites, called “Público”, refuses to publish an article by the Israeli Ambassador to Portugal. A TV station with the name “SIC” broadcasts a programme with the title “Passports” which uses anonymous sources with illicit games at stake to underline the “mercantilism” of the Israelis, bastardises the law granting Portuguese nationality to Jews of Portuguese origin and stifles all the facts that are liable to contradict the shameless theory set out in the text. Cartoonists cause an uproar when they portray Palestine in the hands of Hitler. Swastikas are painted on the walls of the cities of Portugal, whose government makes no diplomatic moves to release the Portuguese citizens who are hostages of the “Hamas” terrorist movement.

2024

A demonstration for better housing in Oporto rails against “murdering Zionist landlords” that it identifies with “Boavista”, the area of the city’s central synagogue. A Portuguese leftist newspaper, as if imitating the newspapers of the German National Socialist Party, publishes the names of those Israeli Jewish landlords of Oporto, together with those of their companies, never clarifying that together they represent a tiny percentage of the businessmen in Oporto’s real estate world. The same businessmen are targeted at another demonstration, whose slogan is “no bombs in Palestine, no evictions in Oporto”. Many inscriptions of “murdering Jews” and “corrupt Jews” are painted on the city’s streets. The international press notes that there is total silence on the part of the Portuguese political leaders in the face of the wave of antisemitism present in the country. Discrimination also continues in the south. The organisation of a music festival announces that “Zionists” will be forbidden from attending the event. A historic associate of the Lisbon Jewish community turns up to vote in Portugal’s elections and is received by an official who tells her he does not like her Jewish name. Parliament goes down the same route and approves a retroactive and discriminatory law that requires that descendants of Portuguese Jews wishing to obtain Portuguese nationality must live in Portugal for three years, as opposed to what is required of other descendants of Portuguese, who are not obliged even to live here for a day.

Unfortunatelly for the antissemites, the Jewish Community of Oporto will continue to evolve in all its statutory aims, following the trajectory that in the space of a single decade has made it one of the most relevant Jewish organisations in the world in respect of religion, culture, philanthropy and fighting antisemitism. Shalom alechem.