Viertes Erasmus+-Treffen in Portugal (Dezember 2015): Unterschied zwischen den Versionen

Das vierte Treffen in Portugal

Montag

Text folgt noch ...

Dienstag

On the 8th December 2015 the German delegation began the day with a breakfast at the hotel. After that we walked from our hotel to the school in Porto, called “Escola Profissional Raul Dória”. There we met the whole Portuguese mobility. About 11 o`clock we arrived the Synagogue Kadoorie - Mekor Haim. There we heard a really interesting Lecture from Mr. Rui Vieira Da Cunha about the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt. We heard something about her live and her political thinking. Hannah Arendt’s represents the idea of political action. This idea includes the aspect of action, the aspect of freedom, the aspect of plurality and the aspect of speech. Really important words from Hannah Arendt are “promising and forgiving”. They are the base for a rich communal life. You have to promise to create good relationships between you and other people and you have to be able to forgive, to overcome the injuries that occur between people. These are only few aspects we learned about Hannah Arendt. After this lecture, Hugo Vaz, the Director of Dept. of Tourism, told us something about the Sephardic Jews. He told us something about their history and their traditions. We visited the synagogue at the time of Hanukkah, the festival of light, so we could see the Hanukkah candlestick with 9 Arms. Be careful, that you don`t mix it up with the Jewish Menorah, which have only 7 arms. On Hanukkah you enflame every evening one candle and at the end 8 candles burn. Beside the explanation about the Hanukkah candlestick, we were informed about the number of Jews in Portugal with an amount of 3000 and in Porto with an amount of 500. Many of the Portuguese people have Jewish blood, but only if the mother is Jewish the child also gets a Jew. About two o’clock we had lunch time. Then we get a tour to the Jewish Porto quarter guided by Francisco Pinio, the father of one of the Portuguese students. We first visited an old prison, which is now a museum. After that we walked around the old Jewish ghetto and had a look on the old synagogue, which is now a church. We also saw a secret synagogue. It was a really nice tour. After the tour at the end of the day, we ate together with the Portuguese students in groups at home.

Mittwoch

At 8:30 all delegtions met at the school, to start a walk through the city. We visited many churches, often built in the 18th century, decorated with tiles, Portugal is well- known for, on the outside, carvings and gold in the inside. An interesting church to mention, is the St. Lawrence church (6th century), which had a cemetary right underneath the floor. Also we came by at a famous and beautiful library ( inspiration for the library in the movie “Harry Potter“ ), which was built in the year 1881 and the Clericus Tower with church. Through the little, narrow alleys we reached the St. Louis Bridge with its interesting history. Before the Eiffel Tower was built in Paris, the bridge was the biggest architectural steel construct in the world. There is also a memorial “Souls of the bridge“, dedicated to the victims who once tried to escape from one side when suddenly the bridge collapsed, that happend in earlier days.

Afterwards we visited the museum “World of Discoveries“. It replicated the Portuguese discoveries, which began in the 14th century. First, large boats and ships equipped with canons and, were built. Mankind already invented tools for navigation such as the compass. We had an insight of the life on the boats and got the perspective how the globuses looked like back earlier. The Portuguese discovered many areas of the world (e.g. North Africa, Sub-Saharan-Africa, tropical rainforests, India, China, Japan, Brazil) in which they traded and got ordinary treasures such as spices, exotic fruits and animals, alcohol, gold and silver, porcelain etc. .

At 13:30, the pupils and teachers had lunch in the cantine near the University of Law, in which we had a lecture at 14:30. The theme was “Traces of the Jewish life in Portugal through the law.

After we visited the university's library, the lecture began with the presentation of the “Erasmus Project“. The pupils were given some historical notes on religious minorities and (in)tolerance. Portugal there was always cultural and religious diversity and the presence of Jewish life. At the end of the 15th century there was a law which said that Jewish people had to live seperately from the Portuguese people, so in specific areas in the town. At some point Jews had to convert to Christianity or otherwise they would have sent away from Portugal. This led to the seperation of the “Old Christians“ and “New Christians“. To re-establish the relationship between Portuguese and the Jews, new laws were passed in the 20th century concerning the protection of religious minorities. The Portuguese Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience, of religion and of form of worship is inviolable, no one may be persecuted or deprived of rights because of his convictions or religious observance.

Also we were given a glance at the actual juridicial situation of Jews. The law is friendly and respectful to Jewish minorities and the freedom of religion and marriage (among Jews and Portuguese is ensured.

At the end we had a fascinating lecture about the banality of evil including the German philospher Hannah Arendt. Sometimes it is the human's failure to think and the absence of critical thinking, that leads to horrible and inhuman actions of mankind!

Donnerstag Belmonte - "The land of Jews"

The very inspiring day in Belmonte was worth the long trip by bus, which started way too early, at 6 o’clock in the morning. But why is this small city known as “the land of Jews”, although the Jewish community there consists of just 60 Jews nowadays? This decrease is caused by economical problems and a lack of opportunities to work for young people, who therefore emigrate to bigger cities. Another disadvantage is the fact, that someone is only a Jew if his mother is Jewish. But many Jewish men married Christian women. The very sympathetic woman who guided us through Belmonte explained that as a consequence the future of the local Jewish community is very uncertain. Well, back to the question, whose answer will be found in the past. During the time of Inquisition and persecution in Portugal, crypto Jews could live there in secret. These Jews pretended to be New Christians, who converted to Christianity, but in fact they still practiced their Jewish habits, traditions and prayers in secret. By definition Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek kryptos - κρυπτός, 'hidden'). The term crypto-Jew is also used to describe descendants of Jews who maintain some Jewish traditions of their ancestors while publicly adhering to other faiths. Crypto-Jews could hide their belief for five centuries in Belmonte. What is very fascinating. Moreover, it was very interesting, that the houses of the Jews were marked. It’s said on the one hand side, that they were marked by the Christian officials, to be sure, that New Christians live in those houses. On the other hand side, researcher try to find evidence that the Jews wanted to give messages to other Jews this way. We visited the small and very beautiful synagogue in Belmonte. The Rabi gave us some further information. He told us about his plan to bring non-Jewish students with Jewish routes in touch with the Jewish belief. Maybe even to win them over to Judaism. Furthermore, we visited the Museu Judaico de Belmonte, which is the biggest museum about Jewish society in Portugal. The Jewish Museum of Belmonte is aimed to become a unity of documentation, investigation, exposition and divulgation about the role played by the local Jewish community within the Jewish history and culture, to whom, this way the city council pays reverence. After many information we were glad to have lunch at a restaurant. To talk, relax and prepare for the long bus drive back to Porto.

Freitag

Text folgt noch ...