One-hundred and fifty European and Israeli rabbis came to Oporto, Portugal on Tuesday to inaugurate a memorial in the community’s Jewish cemetery to those who perished on Oct. 7 at the hands of Hamas terrorists.
The event, organized by the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, the European Jewish Association and the Oporto Jewish community, was presided over by Rabbi Simcha Steinberg of Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Rabbi Netanel Lev of the rabbinical committee of Lubavitch, Paris, who lost his son in the massacre, told those gathered, “My son Binyamin fell in battle on the seventh of October, when he went out to defend the people of Israel with his body.
“He was an outstanding soldier...and was specially chosen to go to the Gaza Strip that morning. One thing comforts me is knowing that he gave his life to protect and save other Jews. May the memory of my son and the rest of the soldiers who were killed be blessed,” he said.
Lev thanked the Oporto Jewish community for its work to commemorate the soldiers and civilians who were murdered on Oct. 7. “It warms the heart. With God’s help, our abductees will soon be released safe and sound,” he said.
Rabbi Binyamin Jacobs, chairman of the Dutch Rabbis’ Committee, said, “We witness here today the combination of the normal and the abnormal, the acceptable and the not acceptable, a regular new Jewish cemetery and the awful Oct. 7 monument. And we see with tears in our eyes that the world accepts the non-acceptable by condemning Israel and by accepting antisemitism.”
The main emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Portugal, Rabbi Eli Rosenfeld, said the memorial conveys the “resiliency” of the Jewish people.
“Notwithstanding the pain experienced on Simchat Torah, the Jewish People will continue to live and thrive,” he said.
Oporto’s Jewish Community opened its new cemetery in April 2023.
It’s named the Isaac Aboab Field of Equality, after the last gaon of Castile, who lived and died in Oporto following the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
The previous cemetery was destroyed in 1497 in the wake of an edict of King Manuel I of Portugal (1495-1521), who persecuted Portugal’s Jews.
“Five centuries ago the Jews of Oporto were robbed of all their assets, houses, even their cemetery was destroyed. This new cemetery is a sign of Jewish life. Honoring the dead of the October massacre here is honoring all our people, past, present and future,” said Rabbi of Oporto Yoel Zekri.
