(February 21, 2023, JNS Wire) The Jewish Museum of the city of Oporto “now has a new reason for interest,” states Vivian Groisman from the cultural department of the Jewish Community. “In the room dedicated to modern antisemitism, we can now find a new topic that arouses a lot of curiosity and astonishment.”
Message now displayed in said room:
“How a Law of Return became an antisemitic campaign against significant Jewish realities in Portugal and the strongest community:”
1. Use of mentally ill and convicted people to make anonymous and slanderous denunciations against the Jewish Community of Oporto – Cases 10444/16.0T9PRT, 1557/08.3PPPRT and 843/17.6JAPRT.
2. Use of nighttime robbers to steal the server from the office of a Community lawyer – Case 35/22.2PJPRT.
3. Use of robbers to break into the home of a lawyer who was wrongly associated with the Community – Case 1047/22.1PIPRT.
4. Use of professional robbers to steal the two computers of the President of SIRESP and attempt to incriminate a Sephardic Jew – Case 00/022LSB
5. Use of corrupt journalists who months on end created an atmosphere of great suspicion around the Community – Case 1903/22.7T9LSB
6. Use of Lisbon police to invade the Oporto synagogue and arrest the Chief Rabbi based on nothing – Case 183/22.9T9LSB
7. Use of anonymous socialist sources to hunt out a philanthropist of the Jewish Community of Oporto – Case 1536/22.8KRPRT
8. Use of corruption to damage the company belonging to a Sephardic Jew who employs many people – Case 24/22.7TPEUR
9. Use of false police notifications to terrify a Community leader, linking her to child pornography – Case 80549/2023PRT.
10. Use of murderers against a young man who was the first signatory of a petition addressed to the State asking it not to persecute the Community – Case 2042/22.6PIPRT.
Groisman explains that “apparently, it was a game with many hands, it is important that students understand antisemites belong to all political and religious factions, and have a negative perception of Jews, Judaism or Israel.”
The Jewish Museum of Oporto was inaugurated in 2019. In his address at the museum’s opening ceremony, the president of B’nai B’rith International said: “This Jewish museum will punctuate the awakening of Jewish life in Portugal and should serve as a beacon of light for the rest of Europe, a land now obscured by resurgent antisemitism.”
Before World War II, an estimated 9.5 million Jewish people lived in Europe. Nowadays, the Jewish population in the European Union is estimated to be up to 1.5 million people. In recent years, the Jewish population in the European Union has been declining, in particular to security concerns, as well as to the perceived lack of determination of some governments to address antisemitism.