Porto: Arthur Carlos Barros Basto, “The Portuguese Dreyfus”?

Porto Jews pay to return “Portuguese Dreyfus” to the army after his death

Arthur Carlos Barros Pasto was a Portuguese army officer who was declared “immoral” in June 1937 for helping the descendants of returned Jews undergo circumcision.

Scenes from the movie “Sfarad” about the Portuguese Dreyfus. (Image credit: CIP/CJP)

Founder of the Portuguese Jewish community in Porto, aka “Portuguese Dreyfus”, At the center of another campaign being led by its current leaders. One hundred years after its founding in 1923, the community is campaigning for the Portuguese state to reinstate its founder in the army after his death, after he was unjustly expelled for practicing Judaism.

Arthur Carlos Barros Pasto was a proclaimed Portuguese army officer “Unethical” In June 1937 to help the descendants of returning Jews undergo circumcision.

This is another campaign by the Jewish community in Porto in recent years since it emerged after an amendment to the local law that offered descendants of Jews around the world the possibility to apply for citizenship.

Campaign to reintegrate the Portuguese Dreyfus into the army

Three weeks ago, the community called on the European Commission to open an impartial international investigation into “An anti-Semitic act that took place in Portugal with thieves, murderers and convicts whose aim was to discredit the country’s most powerful Jewish community, destroy Jewish leaders, stem the influx of Israeli citizens and end the law that granted Portuguese citizenship to Jews of Portuguese descent”According to Gabriel Cenderovich, head of the Jewish community of Porto.

Leading this current campaign effort is Cpt. Pasto’s granddaughter, Isabel Barros López, who continues her mother and grandmother’s efforts to reinstate him after his death but has so far been unsuccessful.

Scenes from the movie “Sfarad” about the Portuguese Dreyfus. (Credit: CIP/CJP)

“It is unbelievable, but now the state claims that my grandfather must be alive, he is 136 years old, and he can only get reinstatement after his death if he requests it personally.” said Barros Lopez, who happens to be the vice president of the Jewish community in Porto.

According to a community press release, for decades just Cpt. Pasto’s closest relatives who fought against injustice. However, in 2012, at the request of Barros López, the Portuguese parliament declared that Cpt. Pasto was the target of “political and religious persecution” and advised the government to “reintegrate him into the Portuguese army”.

The following year, the Army officially announced that Cpt. Bastow could be posthumously reinstated to colonel, a rank he would have reached on November 2, 1945 if he had not been fired.

Despite these decisions being announced by parliament and the military, Barros López said she has not received any document proving that her grandfather was reinstated in the army. “Words and sayings are not enough. We demand that this chapter end with the full and official reinstatement of my grandfather in the Portuguese army after his death, without further apologies,” She said.

“Words and sayings are not enough. We demand that this chapter end with a full and official posthumous reinstatement in the Portuguese Army, without further excuses.” Isabel Barros López

David Jarrett, a member of the board of the Jewish community in Porto in charge of legal affairs, explained this week that “the problem at the moment is not the Portuguese army, but the various state institutions., who are trying to deny any legitimate kinship” to request a posthumous reinstatement, as if The person in whose name they were fighting was immortal, despite a law passed in 2018 that authorized posthumous reinstatement.

Adding that “If we do not receive an answer in the next few weeks, we will file a complaint with the Portuguese Administrative Court and, if necessary, also with the European Court of Human Rights.”

According to historical documents, Cpt. Pasto formally converted to Judaism in 1920 and founded the Jewish community in Porto with about thirty Ashkenazi Jews. Between 1927 and 1934, Basto attempted to help thousands of descendants of forcibly converted Jews, known as Bene Anusim (Conversos), who lived in Portugal to convert to Judaism.

Barros Lopez explained that his grandfather founded a Jewish school, started a Jewish newspaper and “I asked Sephardic Jews around the world to pay for the construction of a great synagogue in Porto,” It is still considered the largest synagogue in the Iberian Peninsula.

However, in 1937, Cpt. Pasto was the target of anonymous letters sent to the Portuguese authorities falsely accusing him of homosexuality. The accusations were false, police said, “but the state took advantage of the controversy and instead he was expelled from the army for helping his students undergo circumcision because they are Jewish,” according to official documents released by the society.

Barros Lopez shared that after his grandfather was kicked out of the military, he “spent the end of his life filled with bitterness and grief.”

Scenes from the movie “Sfarad” about the Portuguese Dreyfus. (Credit: CIP/CJP)

In 2019, the Jewish community of Porto funded the filming and production of a feature film, Sefarad, which tells the story of the captain who was given the nickname “Portuguese Dreyfus” which can be viewed on Vimeo.

Porto’s Jewish community says it now includes about 1,000 Jews from 30 countries. The community has three synagogues, the Holocaust Museum, a Jewish museum, and kosher restaurants. Interestingly, this year the community will open its own cemetery, the last of which was destroyed in 1497 during the decree of King Manuel I, when the entire Portuguese Jewish community was forcibly converted and Judaism was banned in Portugal.

by ZVIKA KLEIN gyroboost