From the President Oct. 24 2019

Today Roxann and I visited a synagogue from the 15th Century.

The earliest documented information about the Jewish community of Tomar, Portugal is the gravestone of Rabbi Jose de Tomar who died in 1315. The Sinagoga de Tomar was constructed in the early 1400’s, in accordance with religious and local customs – no external displays of wealth, no windows or doors facing the street (the door faced east, toward Jerusalem), no prayers should be heard outside and no part of the synagogue could be higher than the church. The Jewish and Christian communities coexisted and prospered peacefully together as neighbors. In 1492 when Spain expelled the Jews, many fled to Portugal and the community grew so large that the King grew afraid and made them leave. The synagogue of Tomar was desecrated and used for many purposes including a grocery store and eventually as a hayloft.

In the 1920’s a Polish Jew named Samuel Schwartz discovered the history and purchased the building. He began restoration and eventually donated it to the government of Portugal to be a museum. A Torah was donated by the San Francisco Jewish community. Rehabilitation was completed in the mid-1950’s and the Sinagoga de Tomar is now a National Monument. It is the only surviving medieval synagogue in Portugal, and one of the oldest in Europe.

The Tomar Synagogue is not in use today as the entire Jewish Community there consists of two families. As we were told, it’s not enough for a minyan.

An interesting side story – on our way to visit there, we stopped for lunch in a small cafe in Tomar. Without knowing exactly what I was doing I ordered alheira, a sausage made of ground meat and flour. The gentleman at the next table spoke some English and we told him why we were visiting. He told us that alheiras were invented by Jews who remained in Portugal after the expulsion, in hiding. They would lie to their neighbors saying there was pork in them while it really was made of fowl and kosher meats.

 

We are what we do.

 

Neil Zarchin