Lisbon anti-Judaic massacre of New Christians in 1506-Memo

Lisbon anti-Judaic massacre of New Christians in 1506-Memorial
(All Jews in Portugal were forcibly baptized in 1497)

HISTORIC DAY FOR THE REVIVAL OF PORTUGUESE JEWISH MEMORY

The following resolution was unanimously approved by the Lisbon City council on January 30, 2008. Thank you for all those who wrote the mayor after the intial resolution was deferred (see some sample letters under Lisbon-anti Judaic label). Also special thanks to Dr. Jorge Martins, author of the three volume "The Jews of Portugal" for having started a petition in support of a memorial and presenting it to the mayor of Lisbon, his worship, António Costa. Thank you also all those who signed the petition.

PROPOSAL N.º 423 /2007
MEMORIAL TO THE VICTIMS OF INTOLERANCE
translated my mlopesazevedo

Considering that:

1. In the year of 1506, the city of Lisbon was the scene of one of the most dramatic and bloody anti-Judaic episodes of all that are known in our territory;

2. During three days, 19, 20, and 21 of April, these events, which occurred next to the Dominican convent (presently St. Dominic’s square), led to about two thousand Lisbonites, for mere suspicion of professing Judaism, of being barbarously assassinated and burned in two enormous bon fires in the Rossio and Ribeira;

3. Evoking this hideous crime that comprised the massacre of 1506, inscribed in the politics of intolerance, which according to Antero Quental, contributed to the decadence of these Peninsular people, should be to bring posthumous justice to all the victims of intolerance and thus constitute an unequivocal affirmation of Lisbon as a cosmopolitan, multiethnic, and multicultural city.

4. The pedagogy of combating racism, discrimination, xenophobia, and all analogous forms of intolerance, constitutes a fundamental base of democracy and of the peaceful coexistence amongst people.

The councillors of the Socialist party, of the list of the “Citizens for Lisbon”, and of the Left Bloc…(citation of enabling legislation), have the honour of proposing that the Municipal Council of Lisbon, at its meeting of January 30, 2007 (sic), deliberate:

1. To install in the city of Lisbon a memorial to the victims of Intolerance, evocative of the Jewish massacre of Lisbon in 1506 and all victims who suffered discrimination and personal indignity because of their origins, beliefs or ideas;

a) The memorial is to be located in St. Dominic’s Square and should be composed of a mural evocative of the victims of intolerance, which conception, execution and installation to be carried out by the municipal services;

b) This project is also to encompass the arrangement of the surrounding area, including the placement, in the same square, of pieces of sculpture contributed by the Catholic and Jewish communities:

c) The inauguration of the memorial shall be on April 19, 2008, in a ceremony sponsored by the municipal council of Lisbon, to which all ethnic and religious communities of the city shall be invited.

The Councillors.