`Lost' Synagogue in Azores Is Rededicated

tr.

By CHAP. NATHAN LANDMAN
Lackland AFB, San Antonio
For me, for 16 American Jewish
servicemen and their wives, for
four of the six remaining Portu-
guese Jews on the island of Sao
Miguel and for the American con-
sul there, the arrival of Hanuka
will have special meaning this
year.
We had recently experienced a
"rededication" of the 130 year-old
synagogue, "Sha'ar HaSha-
mayim"—"Gate of Heaven," at 16
Rua de Brum in the city of Ponta
Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores. It
had not witnessed a minyan for
20 years, since Philip Reich, the
last resident rabbi, departed for
Israel.
For one brief weekend we had
grasped the "mystique" of Jewish
survival, the tenacious determina-
tion to hold on to that which gives
unique form and expression to the
Jewish spirit. Such a moment was
ours when the microcosm of con-
temporary Jewry represented by
our group joined hands with the
remnant of Ponta Delgada Jews to
form "a congregation" on Yom
Kippur day.
At the Jewish cemetery we held
a memorial service. In the ceme-

poses music.
Also to be published by Double-
day is Thomas Wiseman's "Jour-
ney of a Man." In it, neither in the
orgies of the New York jet set nor

Terceira, 90 miles away, Robert
Richman. the lay leader at Lajes,

and other members of the base
had visited the Albo sisters and

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AZORES SYNAGOGUE REDEDICATED

contributed to the synagogue's up-
keep.
Then. d.;ring the High Holid3y.,
in 1966. Chaplain Kalman 1.-vitan
went with Richman from Lajes Air
Base to Ponta Delgada and ar-
ranged c, r the loan of on! of the
Sefer Toras of the synagogue.
Following Ch a plain Lavitan's
visit Rabbi Howard R. Greenstein,
of Temple Beth Shalom of the
North Shore. Peabody, Mas , achtt-
setts, many of whose temple mem-
bers trace themselves to Portu-
guese roots, took interest in the
remnant of Jews at Pont', D , Igada,
and have since undertaken to sup-
port them and help preserve the
synagogue.
In an agreement drawn up with
the help or Malcolm Hallam, for-
mer American consul to the
Azores, when there is only one

surviving member of the Ponta
Delgada community, the sacred
objects of the synagogue will be
transferred to the Peabody congre-
gation. There, in the foundation
for the sacred arts in Judaism be-
ing established by Rabbi' Green-
stein and his congregation, the
spiritual contribution of the Azor-
ean community will continue to
make itself felt.
Hyman Bloom, who succeeded
Hallam as American consul last
spring, has been of help in facili-
tating communication between the
Peabody congregation a n d the
Jews of Ponta Delgada, none of
whom speaks English.
The earliest settlement of Jews

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in the Azores is probably trace-
able to the Inquisition in Por-
tugal in the late 1400s.
The current community of Jews
at Ponta Delgada and those buried
in he cemeteries of that city and
Angra on Terceira Island, are all
descendants of the group of Jews
who came to the islands in 1819.
Dr. Alfredo Bensaude traces six
Jews as the vanguard of these
settlers who came from Morocco
in that year. By 1840 there were

over 150 Jews on the island of San

Miguel.
The first Jews were salesmen.
Of them Dr. Bensaude writes:
"They started their commercial
business on the islands, selling var-
ious kinds of clothes. Some of them
possessed a fair instruction, oth-
ers were illiterate, and without
any money to start their business.
But all of them talked a lot, a fact
that was peculiar to the business-
men of the Jewish community.
They sold sewing threads, small
glassware, ribbons, pins and other
small stuff."
Eventually, in 1832, Joaquin Az-
gory (Zagore) a businessman of
Angra, bought a piece of arable
land in "Caminho Novo," the site
of the present cemetery of Angra,
where some 59 persons are buried.
The last of these, Salomao Alves
Levy, left the revenues of his
house to be used for the mainte-
nance of the cemetery.
The most prominent Jewish
family in the Azores was the
Bensaude family, descendants of
Abraham Bensande, one of the
six original Moroccan Jews who
came to Ponta Delgada in 1819.
The Bensande family developed
one of the largest shipping com-
panies in Portugal. The original
Jewish settlers in Sao Miguel
brought machine-made woolens
mainly from England. Until then
woolen textiles had been made
locally by band.
There was tension between these

Jewish merchants and the local
businessmen until Queen Mary the
Second of Portugal decreed that
the Jews could be naturalized as

Portuguese citizens. The commu-
nity then took root and flourished
for over 100 years.
When business began to decline,
especially during the 1940s, and
when many could go to the Amer-
icas or to Israel, the Jewish com-
munity dwindled to its present six
members.

The longest steel arch bridge in
the world is the Bayonne Bridge
over the Kill Van Kull, which has
connected Bayonne, N.J. to Staten
Island since 1931. It is 1652 ft. long.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Two New Novels Due Off Press

In Jerrold Morgulas' first novel,
"The Accused," published by
Doubleday, four men—two sur-
vivors of the Holocaust, an et-
Wehrmacht officer and a judge
who presided over one of the war
trials — circle around this ques-
tion as they circle around each
other in the streets of New York's
upper West Side. Their final con-
frontation takes place at a strange
mock trial held in the basement
of a crumbling tenement — a trial
where the accused turns accuser
and where the oppressed must face
their guilt.
Morgulas, who graduated from
Yale College in 1955 and Yale Law
School in 1959, enjoys a success-
full law career in New York. He
does much of his writing "on the
run," dictating to a pocket • tape-
recorder on the way to work, and
scrawling ideas on the backs of
envelopes as he waits for his cases
to come up in court. Currently
working on two more novels, Mor-
gulas also paints. sculpts and com-

tery were gravestones of Jews
from Morocco and Portugal, and
most recently those who had fled
from Germany during World War
II. Often these were inscribed with
dual inscription in Hebrew and the

language of origin of the person
interred.
When we stopped at the syna-
gogue, which also houses the
apartment of liana and Raquel
A 1 b o. octogenarian sisters. I
chatted with them through an in-
terpreter. When the shofar was
sounded to conclude the worship,
both ladies spontaneously burst
into joyful tears. For the first
time in 20 years they heard the
voice of the shofar.
Since Chaplain Barry Dov
Schwartz had visited the syna-
gogue at Passover 1965 and
brought its attention to the Amer-
ican Jewish military community at
Lajes Air Base on the island of

46—Friday, December 22, 1967

in the dolce vita abandonment of
Italy can Peter Stellman find ref-
uge from his memories of his Aus-
trian, Jewish family's easy capitu-
lation to Nazi tyranny. Peter Stel -

man's real journey is not destined
to be through the pleasure capitals
of Europe, but a trip back into his
heart, where he must come to grips
with the melancholy passivity
which has often characteristically
been a tragic part of Jewish phil-
osophical resignation.

When completed, the world's
largest sculpture will be that of
the Indian Chief Crazy Horse
(1849-1877). The sculpture was
begun on June 3, 1948 near Mt.
Rushmore, S.D. Projected as 561
ft high and 641 ft. long, it will be
completed in 1990.

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