Portugal to commemorate Inquisition

Portugal has approved a law to officially commemorate the Inquisition of Jews every year, with the day of remembrance for the victims to be held on 31 March every year.

Jews began to be expelled from the country in 1497, with subsequent massacres, culminating in 1536, when tens of thousands were either forced to flee or convert to Christianity. Similar measures had been enacted in Spain a few years earlier.

The Portuguese parliament has now approved the passage of a law to officially commemorate the Inquisition of Jews in the country on the day in 1821 when the Inquisition in Portugal was officially disbanded.

Ashley Perez, president of Reconectar, which seeks to reconnect the descend- ants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities with the Jewish world, said: “Finally there will be official memorialisation of the tens of thousands of victims of the Inquisitorial regime.

“Hopefully this day will create greater aware- ness of this dark chapter of Jewish and Portuguese history, which still casts a giant shadow across the world.”