Modern revival for Portugal’s ancient Jewish community

Porto, Portugal's vibrant northern city, is famed for port wine, historic monuments and colourful UNESCO architecture stretching along the Douro River. 

It also lays claim to a dark Jewish legacy which draws daily tour groups through the old Jewish quarters to discover old Hebrew inscriptions etched into the stone and the scars of mezzuzahs ripped off once-Jewish homes.

Ricardo Bessa Siva, a guide in the Jewish quarters, says the earliest archaeological evidence of Jews in Portugal dates to the 4th century. By the 8th century, under Moorish rule, the Jewish community was flourishing in a cultural Golden Age.

But after the Catholic conquest, which was completed by 1249, life became much harder. Jews paid discriminatory high taxes and were blamed for the Black Death.   

When Spain expelled its Jews in 1492, most sought refuge in Portugal but the sanctuary was shortlived: four years later Portugal's King Manuel 1 ordered Jews to leave unless they converted to Catholicism. Muslims were expelled with no alternative. 

Suspicions remained that Jews who converted were practising their faith and in 1536 the Portuguese inquisition began, targeting New Christians suspected of being crypto-Jews.