Jews in Porto

Walking my son home from music school on Saturdays, the two of us keep coming across groups of ten to twenty Jews, all in their mid twenties, and all in good spirit. The groups are mixed, with men and women in roughly equal numbers, and I only know them to be Jews because some of the men wear their Kippah. For the rest, they look very much like average Portuguese. There's nothing sinister or threatening about them, and I like the fact that they wear their masks under the chin or not at all. It's good to see young people pushing back on the mask mandate.

The appearance of these groups of Jews is relatively recent. We didn't use to have them. Only a few years back, it was rare to see even one Jew wearing his Kippah in public. Now, we come across at least half a dozen every Saturday.

What makes this all the more interesting is that I live relatively far away from the Porto Synagogue. If the groups are on their way home from Saturday prayer service, we must either have a lot of them living in our area, or the total number of Jews now living in Porto must be significant.

There's nothing very mysterious about the influx of Jews to Porto. Anti-Semitism is on the rise everywhere in Europe, except in Portugal, and Porto appears to be the centre of resistance against this disturbing trend. The Porto Synagogue played a central role in the resistance against anti-Semitism back in the 1930s and 1940s, and it appears to be back in business. Jews are flocking to Portugal from all over Europe, with Porto as their preferred city.

Many are also coming from Israel. Things are a little crazy over in Israel at the moment, and it hasn't gone unnoticed that Portugal is relatively welcoming to them. This must be especially appealing to conscription age Jews who don't want to risk their lives in a war for Israel. Hence the relatively young age of many Jewish immigrants to Portugal.

However, this is not to say that there's nothing mysterious going on under the surface. On the contrary, there have been some strange moves that appears to have come out of nowhere. There's a recently enacted law that allows for free immigration to any Jew who can demonstrate some affinity to Portugal. The law refers to the eviction of the Jews that took place some 500 years ago, so we are talking 15 generations. Almost any Jewish person is likely to have at least some connection to those events, so its basically a green pass to anyone Jewish anywhere.

This law didn't come about through popular demand. It was enacted with no other reasoning than the fact that Portugal expelled a lot of Jews in the 1490s. In parallel, there's been all sorts of pro Jewish programs on TV, talking about the rich Jewish culture, and the many important Jews found in Portuguese history. There's even the odd claim made that Portugal, rather than Israel, is the true promised land of the Jews.

I know of no other country that engages in this kind of propaganda. However, the claims made are not entirely false. Portugal has a strong masonic tradition with numerous secret societies and brotherhoods. It's a feature I like, because each brotherhood operates as a counterweight to centralized power in Lisbon. Every conceivable special interest has a brotherhood or secret society. Some are of truly ancient origin. The Knight Templars still exist in Portugal, all be it under a different name. So called Crypto Jews have practiced Jewish religion in secret ever since the eviction of the Jews some 500 years ago.

It appears that one or more of these secret societies have pushed through the repatriation law and its accompanying propaganda. There's also something going on with regards to Muslim immigrants. Portugal is as welcoming to Muslim immigrants as any other European country, yet I've never seen any Muslims hang around in Porto for more than a few months before suddenly disappearing, presumably for some other place in Europe.

The reason Muslims come and go while Jews remain may be quite benign. Most Muslims prefer to live in countries with generous welfare systems, while Jews are more into self sufficiency and networking through brotherhoods and the like. Portugal is a poor country with few welfare goodies to offer, while at the same time quite liberal when it comes to business and private enterprise. The culture is simply more welcoming to Jews than to Muslims. Muslims prefer places like France, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. Jews prefer Portugal.

Finally, I can't help thinking of the 5th Empire which, according to legend, will spring into existence at the banks of Douro, the river that flows past Porto. This legend came about at the time that the Jews were expelled. It contains many masonic references. The return of the Jews is therefore more than a little symbolic to anyone familiar with that legend.

Porto Synagogue

By Bricking - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link