Portuguese Jewish orgs commemorate Christian figures who were kind to Jews

B'nai B'rith International Portugal and the International Observatory of Human Rights held a joint event earlier this week in memory of two Christian figures who showed kindness toward Jews.

The first Christian figure, a nun who made kaddish for a Jewish man when no one else would, was honored alongside the Bishop of Porto, D. Manuel Linda. 

The event commemorated individual’s acts of kindness by Catholics in Portugal towards Jews.

Porto’s Jewish community

Porto's Jewish community, in 1982, was reduced to around twenty Jews. When German refugee Emil Oppenheim died, one of the few remaining Jews, he was not given a proper funeral, to the distress of two Catholic nuns who had cared for him during the last years of his life.

With the assistance of the German Consulate, a meeting was arranged at the cemetery between the nuns and Jewish community member Rudolf Lemchen.

Lemchem made the kaddish for Oppenheim, and one of the nuns took Lemchem’s siddur and also said a Jewish prayer for him

The episode was remembered in a short film that the Jewish Community of Porto, entitled "The Nun's Kaddish".

The remembrance event also paid tribute to Bishop Manuel Linda for his role in defending both human rights and Jewish rights. The two organizations recognized Bishop Linda as “an ambassador of peace".

Bishop Linda said "It is my privilege to express my friendship with the Portuguese Jewish community. I always learn much from them."

Gabriela Cantergi, President of B'nai B'rith International Portugal, said: "Jewish human rights are often denied in a world that targets Jews and the only Jewish State and associates them with deeply negative connotations, ignoring all the good Jews and Israel have done."

“That is why we must recognize, remember, and thank those who stand with the Jewish People and defend our human rights. Our relationship with the Catholic Church has not been easy historically, but we must remember those individuals who did good for individual Jews, like the nun and the bishop.”

“We dare not ignore the growth of discrimination against Jews, because as we have seen throughout history, Antisemitism is a good barometer for the sickness of our societies, and what starts with Jews never ends with them,” said Luis Andrade, President of the International Observatory of Human Rights.