HANUKAH, FESTA DAS LUZES
Os Dinim de Hanukah em português:
http://thesouro.weebly.com/111-de-hanukah.html
OLIVAL HANUKAH PHOTO CREDITS
PAULO GASPAR FERREIRA
Fine Art Photography
(O) Porto, Portugal
paulo.gaspar.ferreira@in-libris.pt
www.paulogasparferreira.web.pt
(351) 91 999 1597 (mobile)
OLIVAL HANUKIAH CEREMONY, WELCOMING REMARKS TO THE ASSEMBLED AND PORTUGUESE MEDIA (translation)
Porto Portugal
Escadas da Esnoga/
Stairs of the Synagogue Square,
Olival
Dec. 17, 2006 (nightfall)
mlopesazevedo
Welcome everyone,
Ladina is an association of Sephardic Marrano culture dedicated to rescuing the memory and culture of our Jewish people who in 1497, the year of the forced baptism, constituted a fifth of the Portuguese population.
We light these candles to celebrate Hanukah, the festival of lights which comemorates the re-taking of the Temple.
We light these candles in memory of Captain Barros Basto, Apostle of the Marranos, a man of vision and courage who in the 1930s built a magnificent Jewish Cathedral of the North. He was a victim of the New State and of Catholic intregalism. He suffered an injustice and needs to be rehabilitated.
We light these candles in memory of the victims of the Inquisition, of whom 3,000 were burned, some alive, like Professor Antonio Homem, Chancelor of Coimbra University, Abbot of the Cathedral, and secret rabbi who was burned alive in 1624 at an auto de fe in Lisbon.
We also remember our people who fled the Inquisition for places incognito, such as Amsterdam, London, New York, Salonica, Venice and Brazil.
Also, in this place, we remember Gabriel da Costa (Uriel Acosta) who was born here, around the corner, on Sao Miguel Street before he fled to Amsterdam where he inspired the great philosopher Bento Espinosa (Baruch Spinoza), whose family came from Evora, Lisbon, Porto and Ponte de Lima. Uriel is the great forgotten Marrano intellectual of Porto.
We hope that in this era of tolerance, our people are able rescue their cultural and religious memory.
(Following these opening remarks, Mr. Ferrão Filipe, director of the Israeli Community of Porto and Isabel Barros Basto Lopes, granddaughter of the Captain addressed the assembled. Then rabbi Eliezer Shai Di Martiano (courtesy Shavei Israel), initiated the ceremony.)
CONVITE CELEBRAÇÃO FESTA DAS LUZES - HANUKAH
PRIMEIRA CERIMÓNIA PÚBLICA 500 ANOS DEPOIS DA INQUISIÇÃO
INVITATION TO THE CELEBRATION OF THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS-HANUKAH
FIRST PUBLIC CEREMONY 500 YEARS AFTER THE INQUISITION
INAUGURAÇÃO DA EXPOSIÇÃO PERMANENTE DO CAPITÃO BARROS BASTO DA COMUNIDADE ISRAELITA DO PORTO/
INAUGARATION OF THE CAPTAIN BARROS BASTO PERMANENT EXHIBIT OF THE ISRAELI COMMUNITY OF PORTO
Press release-Cerimonia Publica de hanukah na antiga judiaria do Olival, Porto, Dez. 17 as 1730
LADINA - Associação de Cultura Sefardita
Rua Nova da Alfandega, 108-1, 4050-431
Porto, Portugal, www.ladina.blogspot.com
Ex.ma Redacção
A LADINA–Associação de Cultura Sefardita leva a efeito no próximo domingo,
17 de Dezembro, pelas 17h30, uma cerimónia pública na antiga Judiaria do
Olival (no largo térreo compreendido entre as Escadas da Esnoga e o
cruzamento das ruas de S. Miguel e da Vitória),de acendimento da 3ª vela da
Hanukia, com a presença do Rabino da Comunidade Israelita do Porto, Elezier
Shai di Martino. A nossa intenção com este acto simbólico efectuado pela
primeira vez em Portugal, desde o baptismo forçado de 1497,é tão somente
assinalar, na sequência como enunciamos acima,a Festa das Luzes –Hanukah,
Hag ha-Ourim– uma cerimónia judaica comemorando a restauração do culto
israelita no Templo pelos Macabeus (163 anos antes da e. c.). Cumpre
assinalar a instalação, no referido local, de um candelabro de oito braços
(HanuKiah) de três metros de altura, pelo período de 9 dias. Na ocasião
acender-se-á a terceira vela de nove do candelabro. Assim, a celebração que
hoje se anuncia aos meios de comunicação não visa apenas divulgar
previamente as fórmulas da prática religiosa e sacramental judaica, mas
pretende ser um evento onde se faz alusão à história portuguesa associada
aos marranos vítimas durante séculos da intolerância e do dogmatismo dos
poderes eclesiásticos. Numa altura em que não toma mais em conta o carácter
conflitivo da história e a liberdade cultual é já uma evidência ganha
importância, a este propósito,a exposição evocativa da Obra do Resgate do
capitão Arthur Barros Basto (Bem Rosh) por ocasião do 119º aniversário
(18/12/887. Esta mostra patente na Sinagoga Mekor Haim (Fonte da Via),Rua
Guerra Junqeiro, 340, dá conta da várias fases evolutivas da vida e obra do
"Apóstolo dos Maranos" já nos primórdios do século XX.
A LADINA é uma Associação criada em 2004, no Porto, para resgatar a herança
judaica do nosso povo. (vidé www.ladina.blogspot.com ou
www.ladina-sefarad.com).
Temos desenvolvido iniciativas variadas: no seu arranque esteve ligada à
organização do 1º Congresso de Marranos em Portugal no Porto. A questão da
importância ou da primazia da herança sefardita no burgo portuense tem-nos
levado a organizar tertúlias mensais, em colaboração com o Clube Literário
do Porto, Fundação Luís Araújo, cuja intenção é divulgar o essencial e
específico da cultura e da espiritualidade marrana até ao presente entre
nós. Para além da colaboração no lançamento do primeiro azeite kosher
português Ribeiro dos Santos, a LADINA participou no acto inaugural do Museu
Judaico de Belmonte. Dentro do seu programa de acção alargado, que acabámos
de expôr, contam-se ainda as "demarches" na reabilitação do capitão Barros
Basto (activista em prol do resgate dos marranos que foi perseguido pelo
Estado Novo), mas também a determinação na criação de um Museu Judaico no
Porto que é uma falta sensível na memória daqueles que muito contribuíram
para o desenvolvimento deste burgo.
A LADINA vem solicitar a cobertura noticiosa de V.Exas para este evento, bem
como a eventual divulgação do mesmo. Estamos disponíveis para todas as
informações que haja por bem necessárias através do Tel. 917553042
(Jorge Neves).
Com os melhores cumprimentos,
Alexandre Teixeira Mendes
Porto, 10 de Dezembro de 2006
Hanukah Lights to burn publicly for the First Time in 500 years
mlopesazevedo
(O)Porto, Portugal
For the first time since the forced baptism of 1497 (unlike Spain, Portugal did not expel its Jews, it simply baptized them all), Hanukah lights will burn in public in the old Jewish quarter of Olival, in downtown historic Porto. Ladina, a Porto based non-profit society dedicated to rescuing Portugal’s Jewish heritage, will erect a giant Hanukiah between two towering palm trees overlooking the red tiled rooftops of the Douro river, a stone’s throw away from the birthplace of Uriel da Costa, a little known New Christian whose tragic death in Amsterdam in 1640 greatly influenced Portugal’s most famous Jew, Bento de Espinoza, better known as Baruch Spinoza, the philosopher. Da Costa, who denied the immortality of the individual soul, is recognized as the world’s first modern secular Jew.
Rabbi Eliezer Shai di Martino, recently arrived from Rome will light the candle on the ten foot high locally made candelabrum on the 3rd day of Hanukah, Sunday, December 17th. In attendance will be members of the fledging Marrano community of the Mekor Haim synagogue known as the “Cathedral of the North”, built by Captain Barros Basto. The charismatic Captain, dubbed the “Apostle of the Marranos” by noted historian Cecil Roth had over 10,000 adherents in northern Portugal in the 1920s and 30s. He started building the synagogue in the year of the depression and with the help of the descendants of the Marrano Diaspora in New York, London and Amsterdam(and the Kadoorie family) finished it in 1938, the year of Kristallhnacht.
There is a strange rumble going on in Portugal, a puported Catholic country. Despite the forced baptism of 1497 and 300 years of the Inquisition, the Jewish soul has survived and is even making a comeback, albeit slowly. Hardly a month goes by in Portugal without a new book on Jewish culture, whether it is a foreign translation such as Martin Gilbert’s Letters to Aunt Fori or a homegrown work such as professor Jorge Martin’s monumental three-volumes, Portugal e os Judeus. From a new synagogue for the Marranos of Belmonte who secretly practiced essential Jewish rituals for 300 years, to the transformation of the Ashkenazi Ohel Jacob synagogue in Lisbon for returning Marranos, the deeply embedded sibylline roots of Jewish Portugal are sprouting new shoots.
The term Marrano was once frowned upon as a pejorative term for those Jews who were forcibly baptized (New Christians). Many academics prefer the term, Anousim, Hebrew for “forced ones”. However, for people like Jorge Neves Oliveira, filmmaker and poet Alexandre Teixeira Mendes, both founders of Ladina, the term Marrano signifies survival against all odds. It is a badge of honour, a source of pride. The Inquisition did not triumph. Oliveira and Mendes are intent on rescuing the nearly lost Jewish heritage that once thrived in the Iberian Peninsula, otherwise known as Sefarad (hence the term, Sephardic Jews). And the Jewish world is taking note. Rabbi di Martino is in Porto courtesy of Shavei Israel, an organization dedicated to returning lost sheep to the flock. In Lisbon, the Conservative movement has facilitated the return of Marranos to normative Judaism by providing educational guidance and support.
Portuguese Jews once helped make Portugal a great centre of culture and education. From astronomy to politics to medicine, Portuguese Jews played an important role in the creation of a modern Europe. In commerce, the so-called “Men of the Nation” were instrumental in the development of modern financial markets of Amsterdam, London and New York (see the Coffee Trader and A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss or the Grandees by Stephen Birmingham).
Portugal is once again mired in economic woes and despite the dark period of the Inquisition, the remnants of its once proud and fiercely patriotic "Men of the nation" may have to come to the rescue, only this time they will be welcomed with open arms.
