Jewish Community of Oporto Urges Portugal’s President to Apologize for ‘Soviet-Style’ Antisemitism Campaign

The Jewish Community of Oporto urged Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa earlier this month to issue a public apology for what it described as a “Soviet-style” antisemitic campaign against it by government and law enforcement authorities.

In a letter to de Sousa, which can be read in full here, Jewish Community of Oporto President Gabriel Senderowicz wrote, “On 11 March 2022, the Oporto Synagogue, the Jewish Museum, and the houses of community leaders were unlawfully invaded by a large number of police officers, based on anonymous denunciations by criminals.”

“The heads of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary Police, shamefully instrumentalized the accusations, for political purposes, and told the world they were investigating possible crimes of active corruption, influence-trafficking, tax fraud, money laundering, forgery of documents and others,” he added.

Senderowicz further asserted, “The accusations against the community were technically impossible and the authorities knew they had no evidence of such charges.”

Last September, he noted, a Court of Appeals ruled that the investigations were “based on nothing.”

As a result of the case, Senderowicz stated, the Jewish Community of Oporto had suffered “wrongs and damages” that were “irreparable and can never be compensated.”

A video detailing the plight faced by the Jewish Community of Oporto over the past year can be viewed here: