Remains of a Torah ark discovered during renovations in Portugal

[Behind the Aegis]

A group of citizens from the city of Porto in Portugal who view themselves as descendents of Crypto-Jews want to turn a building in which the remains of an ancient synagogue were found into a museum dedicated to the history of the city's Jews.

In their view, the building, in which a recess of a synagogue ark was discovered by chance, once served as the synagogue of Rabbi Isaac Aboab. However, so far the group's request has not been acceded to, and it appears unlikely that it will.

Rabbi Aboab, also known as the "last gaon of Castile," was the head of the Guadalajara yeshiva and one of the last gaonim of Spain. In March 1492, on the eve of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Aboab and a group of Jewish dignitaries managed to obtain political asylum in Portugal.

The rabbi settled in the Judiaria, or Jewish, quarter of Porto along with a few hundred Jewish families. Five years later, the Portuguese authorities forced all the Jews in the country to either convert to Christianity or be expelled.


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