A Portuguese Purim

Rachel and Henry Magrill

Like many (most?) Jews visiting a foreign country, we invariably find out in advance if there is an active Jewish community and try to pay a visit to the local Shul. This year we were in Lisbon for a long weekend break which coincided with Purim, so there was an extra incentive to make sure that we could attend the reading of the Megillah.

Just a few years ago we would doubtless have started our research with the Jewish Travel Guide and letters, faxes or phone calls to Lisbon to get all the details. Today, of course, we have the Internet and the whole procedure takes just a few minutes in the comfort of our own study! A search for "Lisbon Synagogue" produced the website of the Shaaré Tikva Synagogue at http://www.multimania.com/shaaretikva/ . This gave us details of the address and how to find it as well as interesting historical background on the community. It also enabled us to email them to find out the times of services. We received a reply by return with all the information we required, notably that the Purim service would begin at 6.45pm.

It transpired that our hotel was not very far from the synagogue - about four short stops on the metro - so we did a recce earlier in the day and found the shul just fifty metres or so from the Rato metro station on a main road. The street frontage is quite inconspicuous behind green wrought-iron gates. When we arrived for the service we were thoroughly questioned by a security guard (possibly Israeli, but speaking good English). We explained that we had come for the Purim service and had emailed in advance, which was fine except that we had not thought to bring our passports and we couldn't remember the name of the person who had replied to our email. After a few minutes of grilling the guard decided that we were obviously innocuous (if we'd been terrorists we would have doubtless made sure we were less gormless) and he let us in.

Inside the gate is a small courtyard with the synagogue building on the left extending parallel to the road, so despite the small external frontage the synagogue is quite substantial. The internal layout is generally no different from many other shuls, although there are two ladies galleries, one very high up near the ceiling (the gods??). The building, which will celebrate its centenary in a couple of years, has wooden seats and bookrests. Above the Ark, engraved into the stone wall, is the Hebrew sentence "Known before whom you stand", as is found in most synagogues (including the NWES), but in enormous lettering which seemed somewhat out of proportion to the size of the building as a whole. There are about 150 seats downstairs and the congregation for Purim numbered about thirty men and perhaps a dozen or so ladies, plus five or six children in fancy dress.

However frequently we visit synagogues overseas, we still get a thrill to find that the service, wherever we are, is for all practical purposes identical to our own. The Lisbon community, of course, is Sephardi, so the tunes were unfamiliar, but the service was very easy to follow and they handed out photocopies of the Megillah with an English translation (presumably the Portuguese community is too small to warrant locally produced copies in Portuguese). All the traditional customs - three charity plates, fancy dress (including the man reading the Megillah), banging at Haman's name - were followed; the Rabbi even gave a short briefing before the reading and although it was in Portuguese we were able to gather that he was reminding us not to say "Barechu uvaruch shemo" after the Brachot - exactly the same instruction that Rabbi Shisler had given us the preceding Shabbat! The reader was most particular in ensuring that every word of the Megillah was audible and, after each dose of stamping at Haman's name, he repeated the last couple of words in case they had not been heard. Unfortunately, on occasion this simply resulted in further banging when Haman's name was repeated!

Unfortunately we did not really have the opportunity to talk to the community as there was no party or reception after the Service, but nonetheless we would certainly recommend a visit to the Lisbon shul to any of our readers who find themselves in that city.

The exterior of the Shaaré Tikva Synagogue Rua Alexandre Herculaneo 59 1250-010 Lisboa Tel: +351 21 385 8604 Fax: +351 21 388 4304 Email: tikva@oninet.pt