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First Jewish cultural center in is inaugurated more than 500 years after country’s were expelled Center’s opening in the city of Trancoso included a festive Torah dedication ceremony

Attached please find photos of the ceremonies at the brand-new Jewish Center in Transcoso. Photos 1-4 are of the new center; photo 5 shows Michael Freund carrying the Torah for the new center; photo 6 is the celebratory dedication of a Torah scroll for the center brought from Israel. Photo credit: courtesy of Shavei Israel

Transcoso, Portugal, July 23, 2013 – A new Jewish cultural and religious center was inaugurated today in the city of Transcoso – the first of its kind in Portugal since the country’s Jews were expelled more than 500 years ago. The center is a joint collaborative effort between the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel organization and the Trancoso Municipality. Over 100 people participated in the center’s Chanukat HaBayit (inauguration ceremony), at which Mezuzahs were affixed to the doors. The highlight of the event was the celebratory dedication of a Torah scroll which was brought from Israel and will be used in the center’s synagogue. It was carried into the center amid energetic singing and dancing.

“This is an historic moment,” said Shavei Israel Founder and Chairman Michael Freund in his speech at the inaugural ceremony. “More than five centuries after the expulsion of Portuguese Jewry, the streets of Trancoso, Portugal, once again filled with the sounds of Jewish song as we brought a Torah scroll to its new home here at the center.” Freund noted that, “Trancoso’s new Jewish center will commemorate the countless Portuguese Jews who were persecuted, forcibly converted or expelled more than five centuries ago. Today’s dedication ceremony symbolizes the rebirth that is taking place in Portugal as growing numbers of Bnei Anousim emerge from the shadows of history and seek to reconnect with the Jewish people. Working together in partnership with the Trancoso Municipality, we hope to provide the Bnei Anousim with a wide variety of cultural, educational and spiritual programming in the years to come. I believe that the Jewish people owe it to the Bnei Anousim to reach out to them, extend a welcoming hand and enable as many of them as possible to return,” he said.

The center, named the Isaac Cardoso Center for Jewish Interpretation, will be administered by Shavei Israel, which will organize various Jewish activities on its premises, all of which will be overseen by the group’s emissary to Portugal, Rabbi Elisha Salas. Jose Levy Domingos, who serves as an advisor to the Mayor of Trancoso, will administer the center for the municipality and work in conjunction with Rabbi Salas. The center will focus on outreach work to the many Bnei Anousim (descendants of Iberian Jews who were compelled to convert to Catholicism in the 14th and 15th centuries and whom historians refer to by the derogatory term Marranos) who reside in the area.

The Cardoso Center for Jewish Interpretation will also include an exhibition about the Jewish history of Portugal and the renewal of Jewish life in the region in recent years. It also contains a new synagogue called Beit Mayim Hayim - “the House of Living Waters.”

About Trancoso Transcoso is a city in northeastern Portugal that was home to a flourishing Jewish community in the 14th and 15th centuries, prior to the expulsion and forced conversion of Portugal’s Jews One of the most well- known Jewish historical buildings in Transcoso is the Casa do Gato Negro in Largo Luis de Albuquerque, which used to serve as a synagogue and rabbi’s residence. One of Transcoso’s most famous Jews was the mysterious Banbarra (1500-1545), a shoemaker and a poet, who prophesized the future of Portugal and was a source of inspiration for many writers.

About Isaac Cardoso Isaac Cardoso, after whom the center is named, was a Jewish physician and philosopher who was born in Trancoso in 1603 to a family of Bnei Anousim. He later moved to with his family and then fled to Venice to escape the Inquisition, where he and his brother Miguel publicly embraced . He went on to publish a number of important works on philosophy, medicine and theology, including an important treatise defending Judaism and the Jewish people from various medieval stereotypes such as ritual murder accusations and the blood libel.

About Bnei Anousim in Portugal In 1497, the King of Portugal presented the Jews living in his realm with a dastardly choice: convert or die. Some chose death, but most of Portuguese Jewry was dragged to the baptismal font and compelled to accept Catholicism against their will. Many of these "New Christians," however, did their utmost to remain loyal to their Jewish roots, passing down the faith and practices of their ancestors across the generations. And while many were made to pay a heavy price by the Inquisition for their continued fidelity to Judaism, many others somehow succeeded in preserving their Jewish identity. Perhaps the most famous example was the community of Belmonte, in northern Portugal, where some 150 Bnei Anousim were formally restored to the Jewish people two decades ago by a rabbinical court sent from Israel.

About Shavei Israel Shavei Israel is a non-profit organization founded by Michael Freund, who immigrated to Israel from the United States, with the aim of strengthening ties with the descendants of Jews around the world. The organization is currently active in nine countries and provides assistance to a variety of different communities such as the “” of India, the “Bnei Anousim” in Spain, Portugal and South America, the “Subbotnik Jews” of Russia, the Jewish community of Kaifeng in China, the "Hidden Jews" of from the Holocaust era and others. For more information visit: www.shavei.org.

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