Celebrations Jan. 27 marked the 75th anniversary of the magnificent Kadoorie Mekor Chaim Synagogue in Porto, Portugal, the largest active synagogue in Iberia. About 280 Jewish representatives from the U.S., Israel, the United Kingdom and Argentina attended the ceremonies. In the 1920s Porto was the center of a modest Jewish cultural revival, under the leadership of an army captain, Arturo Carlos de Barros Bastos, who felt it was his mission to reach out to Conversos and bring them back to Judaism. (Barros Bastos was dismissed from the Portuguese army in 1937 due to anti-Semitism but was reinstated last year.)
The synagogue was built with the financial backing of Lord Kadoorie of Hong Kong in honor of his wife and was was intended as a home for Portuguese Conversos. Set in a large garden dominated by towering palms, it is a square stone building with an entrance made up of a series of arches. The grand interior, under a large cupola, is marked by azulejos – the tiles for which Portugal is famous. Blue tiles line the side walls, and the eastern wall features gold tiles in arabesque patterns above an Ark with wooden doors. Just above the Ark is a large Star of David.