This is a guest post by Richard Zimler, author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, Angelic Darkness and others.
I need your help to rectify a case of anti-Semitism.
Back in the 1920s, a well-respected Portuguese military captain named Artur Barros Basto found his way back to the religion of his ancestors – Judaism – and tried to kindle a rekindle Jewish belief in Portugal. Keep in mind that the Portuguese Jews had been forced by King Manuel to convert in 1497. Those converts who were unable to flee the country over the next centuries were persecuted by the Inquisition, all the way up until the late 18th century. So at the time Barros Basto began his movement, there were almost no practicing Jews in Portugal. Unfortunately for him, Salazar’s right-wing dictatorship frowned upon his activities and stripped him of his military commission on June 12, 1937, citing the circumcisions of male converts in which he’d participated as evidence of excessive affection toward his pupils.
Barros Basto died in 1961. Despite governmental promises to reinstate him in the military and rehabilitate his name, politicians continue to stonewall such efforts. Some of us in Portugal are making another effort, however. Barros Basto’s granddaughter Isabel has submitted a request to the Portuguese parliament to rehabilitate her grandfather’s name. This request is translated into English at Ladina.
Isabel needs the support of all those who would like for justice to be finally carried out. And she would like the support of the media around the world. That is why I am posting this. Perhaps those of you who have friends in the media could forward this information to them. If your journalist friends need more information, they can write to me and I will supply them with Isabel’s email.
