Many readers are familiar with the notorious Dreyfus Affair, which took place in 1894 in France when a Jewish career soldier, a captain in the French army, was falsely accused of treason and convicted by an anti-Semitic
French military court and imprisoned. That injustice was not rectified until a decade later.
Few, however, have heard of the Portuguese “Dreyfus Affair,” when a Jewish officer by the name of Artur Carlos de Barros Basto, who was a ger tzedek, was falsely accused and then convicted by an anti-Semitic Portuguese military
court in 1937. The Portuguese government overturned his conviction only in 2012, more than 50 years after his death
Artur Carlos de Barros Basto (1887–1961) was born in Amarante, Portugal,
a town on the banks of the Tamega River near the large city of Oporto,
also known as Porto. His parents separated when he was young. He then lived
during the school year in Oporto with his mother, Maria Ernestina de Bessa
Fortes, who was a devout Christian, and spent summers with the family of
his New Christian father, Francisco de Barros Basto, in Amarante. There
he was in contact with many other New Christians, who would openly act
like Catholics but in private observed Jewish rituals, such as lighting Shabbos
candles on Friday night.
At the age of 9 he discovered his Marrano ancestry when his paternal
grandfather related this information to him on his deathbed. His grandfather
said that although he had lived as a Christian, he wanted to die as a Jew.
Artur Carlos learned that his Jewish great-grandparents, Carlos de Barros
Basto and his wife, Sarah de Carvalho, had been born in Bordeaux, France,
and were descendants of Jewish families who had fled Portugal after the
expulsion.
When he was 23 he participated in the founding of the Portuguese Republic,
and he raised the Republican flag in the city of Oporto on October 5, 1910, when
the Republic was established. During this period he met a French Rabbi who
is believed to have inspired him to learn more about Judaism.
His motivation to become a leader in the overthrow of the monarchy,
and along with it the institution of Catholicism as the state religion, was
in part due to his interest in Judaism. The Republic guaranteed freedom of
worship to all religions. Artur Carlos attended the Portuguese
Military Academy. As a lieutenant in World War I, he commanded a battalion
of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps in Flanders, earning many decorations
and medals for bravery awarded him by both Great Britain and Portugal. At that
time he was promoted to captain. Conversion and Marriage
After his mother passed away in 1918, Barros Basto decided to study Judaism, and taught himself Hebrew. His proficiency in the language earned
him a position teaching Hebrew at the University of Oporto, where he also
conducted research into Portuguese Jewish history of the medieval era.
Rebuffed by the Jewish community of Lisbon because of his non-Jewish
roots, he went to Tangier to formally convert to Judaism, adopting the name
of Avraham Yisrael Ben-Rosh and undergoing a bris milah.
Once he was megayer, he was accepted into the Lisbon community
and married the daughter of a prominent Jewish Lisbon family, Leah
Israel Montero Azancot, with whom he had a son, Nuño Carlos Azancot de
Barros Basto, and a daughter, Miryam Edite de Barros Basto. The couple
settled in Oporto in 1921.
There were 17 Ashkenazic Jewish merchant families in Oporto at the
time who emigrated from Germany, Lithuania, Russia and Poland, with
no shul and no organized Jewish community. The few Oporto Jews would
travel to Lisbon when they wanted to participate in religious services.
By 1923 Captain Barros Basto had founded the Jewish community of
Oporto and established a shul on the second floor of a building on Elias
Garcia Street in rented space.
Marranos in Portugal
While Captain Barros had been seeking to convert to Judaism, Mr.
Samuel Schwartz, an observant Jewish engineer from Galicia, settled in Lisbon
and became active in the larger Jewish community there. Mr. Schwartz had
been on a mining expedition back in 1917 to Belmonte in the north of
Portugal, where he met a local merchant who “warned” him not to buy supplies
from a business competitor of his because he was a Jew.
Schwartz was shocked to discover that in the north of Portugal there were
Jews, since it was believed there had been no Jews in the country after they
had been expelled in 1497. Schwartz decided to meet the man’s Jewish
competitor and possibly gain access to these “undiscovered” Marranos.
When the Marranos were approached by Sam Schwartz, they were very suspicious of him and refused to believe he was a Jew. They had thought
that they were the only Jews left in the world; however, when Schwartz recited
the Shema to them, they realized that he truly was a Jew.
These people whom Schwartz met were considered crypto-Jews, and their
culture has been described as crypto Judaism. Although they would attend
church and conduct themselves like Catholics externally, they maintained
their Jewish identity, reciting a number of Jewish prayers and practicing
some Jewish laws. They claimed to be descendants of Jews forced to convert
in the fifteenth century who had observed some Jewish rituals in the
secrecy of their homes.
For several hundred years these people married among themselves, believing in the arrival of Moshiach who would redeem his people at the End of Days. They observed Shabbos and some of the Yamim Tovim. They would light candles on Friday night either in basements or attics, ensuring
that they were hidden from the public eye. They would observe Passover and
Yom Kippur a day or two before or after the Hebrew date as their ancestors had
done in order to confuse the agents of the Inquisition.
They had preserved several customs of mourning, like taharah, the washing
of the niftar, and shivah, and kept a candle burning during the first seven
days of mourning. Their marriage ceremony included making the
following declaration in Portuguese:
“Em nome de De-s de Abrahão, Isaac e Jacob, eu vos uno. Cumpri vos a Sua
benção — In the name of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob … I commend
you to His benediction.”
Sam Schwartz published his findings on the Marranos, which caused a great
sensation in the Jewish world. As a result of the publication of his research
in the Anglo-Jewish press, a group of British Sephardic Jews decided to
sponsor a Jewish Mission to the Lisbon community. The intended goal of the
Jewish Mission was to get involved in bringing the Marranos back to
mainstream Judaism.
By this time Captain Arturo Carlos de Barros Basto had declared himself
a Jew and was chosen to undertake the revitalization of the spiritual life of the
Marranos in Portugal.
‘Hashem Is With Me’
This charismatic army captain embarked on a campaign to convince the Marranos in Portugal to return openly to Yiddishkeit. He tried to inspire them to convert and observe the mitzvos. His motto was: “Hashem is with me; I will not fear.” He traveled around the country in full uniform and regalia, sporting his medals, sometimes riding on horseback or donkey, or even on foot, to the isolated Marranos livingin the northern Tras-os-Montes and Beiras regions of Portugal.
He succeeded in establishing synagogues in several cities, including Bragança, Covilha and Pinhel, despite protests from the Catholic church. On his trips he was accompanied by two physicians who would perform circumcisions.
It is believed that there were over 10,000 Marranos in Portugal, and he
was successful in bringing thousands of them back to Judaism.
This movement of redemption was called the “Obra do Resgate” — Rescue
Work, and excited Jewish communities all over the world. Many offered moral
and financial support. The Portuguese Marranos Committee was created by
the Spanish Portuguese Congregation of Bevis Marks, England’s oldest
synagogue. Sephardic Jews in Amsterdam, Manchester, Philadelphia, New York, Hamburg and Paris, whose ancestors had escaped the clutches of
the Inquisition, also lent him support.
The Ger Tzedek Establishes A Yeshivah
Captain Barros Basto was able to secure funds from the London Marranos Committee with which he opened a yeshivah in Oporto. Rosh Pina, as the yeshivah was called, was the first yeshivah established in Portugal in
more than 500 years. It was in existence for nine years, until the beginning of
the “Portuguese Dreyfus Affair,” about which we will elaborate below.
Captain Barros Basto began publishing and editing a magazine called Halapid — The Torch, in 1927, with articles about Torah, the observance of mitzvos and Jewish history. This magazine continued to be published until 1958, three years
before his passing. It had subscribers in Portugal, Spain, France, England, Holland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Eretz Yisrael,
Brazil, Colombia and the United States!
He also authored more than 20 books in Portuguese on Jewish law and history; a number of them were published by his school and others by the Oporto Jewish community.
These are just a few:
1. As Noites de Hanukah ou da Festa dos Macabeus Porto, 1943; readings for eight nights of Chanukah and the laws of Chanukah.
2. Birkhath ha-Mazon Graças apos a Refeiçao: Segundo o Rito Portugues, 1940.
3. Don Abraham Zacuto, RabiAstronomo-Historiografo, 1946; containing an illustration of Christopher Columbus visiting Abraham Zacuto.
4. Don Yahia Ben-Yahia: Chief Rabbi of Portugal, 1944.
5. Dor e Fé: Oraçoes, Segundo o Rito Portugues, Pelos Doentes, Moribundos e Mortos/Tefi llos for the sick, dying and dead according to the Portuguese rite, 1928.
6. H’ad Gadiah: Infl uencias hebraicas no folclore portugues,
1944; Portuguese translation of Chad Gadya with examples of Portuguese folk songs influenced by it.
7. Hazkarath ha-Methim, Oraçao de Saüdade dos Mortos/Prayer for
the dead, 1945.
8. Judeos & Prosélitos/Jews and Proselytes, 1946.
9. Memorial de Preceitos Israelitas, vol I: A discussion of tzitzit, tallis,
tefillin, the Shema, Amidah, Torah scroll, synagogue, etc., 1931.
10. Memorial de Preceitos Israelitas, vol. II, 1932: Book of laws concerning Shabbos.
11. Nehilah ou Encerramento de Kipur, 1929: Ne’ilah for Yom Kippur according to Portuguese rite.
Building a Synagogue
Barros Basto led a successful fundraising campaign for the construction
of a synagogue, for which Baron de Rothschild of Paris provided money
to purchase a lot. It was situated along the Rua Guerra Junqueiro and was
called Congregation Mekor Chaim —a magnificent four-story edifice. Until
today it is the largest synagogue in the Iberian Peninsula. Construction
on the site began in 1929 and the work progressed slowly until 1933 with the
support of the Committee for SpanishPortuguese Jews in London.
In 1937 the synagogue was finished with a large donation from the Kadoorie
family. When Laura Kadoorie, the wife of Sir Eli Kadoorie, a prominent Jewish
philanthropist from Iraq, passed away, her children wanted to commemorate
her. She was a descendant of those who had fled Portugal in the expulsion of
1497. The shul was renamed Synagogue Kadoorie/Mekor Chaim.
Among the people who attended the inauguration of the shul were
lawyer Paul Goodman, president of the Portuguese Marranos Committee;
Moses Amazalak, president of the Lisbon Israeli community; journalist
and founder of the Jewish Historical Society of England Lucien Wolf;
Cambridge professor and author Cecil Roth, and Rabbi Dr. David de Sola Pool
of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue of New York (Shearith Israel).
Rabbi de Sola Pool was an avid supporter of the Oporto synagogue,
and one of its rooms is named after him. Today, the synagogue also houses a
Jewish museum with a section devoted to Captain Barros Basto.
The Catholic church responded The Catholic church responded to
the construction of the magnificent synagogue by building a church in the same architectural style as the synagogue, only bigger, just up the road.
Students of the neighboring German college threw rocks at the windows
of the newly built synagogue. Public protests were held against the presence
of synagogues in the provinces.
The Estado Novo, or Second Republic, was the corporatist, authoritarian regime installed in Portugal in 1933 known as the Salazar dictatorship. It did not appreciate the magnificent synagogue and was not very pleased with Captain Barros Basto, who had hoisted the republican flag.
The Taking Down of Captain Barros Basto
Powerful enemies of the Jewish captain organized a campaign to destroy
him. The Marranos’ open identification with Judaism did not sit well with the
government or with church authorities. Teachers and physicians who had answered the captain’s call suddenly had no students or patients.
In 1935 Tomaz Correia da Luz Almeida, a priest in the monastery
of Al-furada, would loiter outside the yeshivah and follow Barros Basto’s
students each day as they walked home.
Tomaz won the confidence of several youngsters and by manipulatively
questioning them, he was able to fabricate a case against the captain.
The priest convinced the police that Barros Basto was a “degenerate”
and was behaving improperly when performing circumcisions. The Oporto
municipal prosecutor immediately brought criminal charges against
Barros Basto. The latter’s dossier then was turned over to the army, which
instituted its own court-martial. The case dragged on from 1935 to 1937
but was eventually dropped for lack of conclusive evidence. Yet the damage
was done.
On June 12, 1937, the Superior Disciplinary Council of the Portuguese Army concluded that Barros Basto lacked the “moral capacity” to serve
in its ranks. The military council accused Barros Basto of “performing
the operation of circumcision of several students pursuant to a precept of the
Israelite religion he professes….”
Although Barros Basto was cleared by civil and military authorities of
guilt in regard to the trumped-up charges, Salazar’s fascist ministers
condemned him for allegedly carryingout circumcisions and stripped him of
his military commission, prohibiting him from wearing his uniform.
This led to a collapse of the renaissance movement that Barros
Basto had begun. The very people he had championed shunned him. By
the mid-1930s, parents withdrew their children from the Rosh Pina Yeshiva, and Barros Basto had become persona non grata among his once-devoted
Marrano followers. The established Jewish community also now distanced
itself from him.
Rescuer During the Holocaust
Despite all his problems, Barros Basto was active during the Holocaust
and helped hundreds of Jews escape the war, enabling them to begin a
new life in Oporto. He established a local chapter of the Joint Distribution
Committee in Porto for the humanitarian support of thousands
of Jewish refugees. The Jewish community of Oporto recently signed
a protocol with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in
order to provide it with thousands of documents and records of individual
refugees whom he helped.
In 1961 Captain Barros Basto passed away, a broken man. He had
been stripped of his rank and publicly humiliated because he was a Jew.
Historians such as Cecil Roth compared him to Alfred Dreyfus. Following
Portugal’s peaceful revolution of 1974, which toppled Europe’s longest dictatorship, Basto’s family sought to clear his name. It took almost four
decades to do so.
Innocence Declared
Finally, several months after a petition was presented to the
Portuguese parliament on October 31, 2011, by his granddaughter, Isabel
Ferreira Lopes, Captain Barros Basto was cleared of all charges.
On February 29, 2012, the National Assembly of Portugal voted
unanimously on the recommendation of Carlos Abreu Amorim and Fernando
Negrão, members of the Civil Rights Committee of the National Assembly.
They found the accusations of 1937 (and confirmed in 1975) against the
Captain to be baseless and motivated by anti-Semitism. The Captain was
posthumously reinstated into the army in July of 2012.
Today, if you visit Oporto, Portugal, and see the magnificent
Kadoorie Synagogue there, think of this outstanding ger tzedek who
established the Jewish community in that city and saw to its shul’s
construction. Remember his courage to embrace his Jewish roots and
convert despite the danger, and his efforts to bring many Marranos back
to mitzvah-observance.
by Pearl Herzog
10 Av 5777 Hamodia, Inyan Magazine August 2, 2017