The names and stories of Portuguese citizens taken by Hamas serve to ensure that they are never considered second-class Portuguese citizens.

By Gabriel Senderowicz, JNS

The recent visit by Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs Paulo Rangel to Israel took place at a key time. A total of 13 Portuguese citizens were killed in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Five were freed from Hamas’s tunnels, and four others are waiting to be let go.

The most joyous day in the Jewish calendar—the feast of Simchat Torah, which coincided with Shabbat on Oct. 7, 2023—turned into a nightmare for the Jewish people. The indiscriminate murder, dismemberment and kidnapping of Jews of all ages was another chapter of anti-Jewish persecution that has lasted for centuries in places as different as Alexandria, Egypt; Odessa, Ukraine; Seville, Spain; and in Lisbon.

The tragedy of Oct. 7 revealed that more than 100 of the 240 hostages had citizenship other than Israeli citizenship. Portuguese citizenship was granted to those alive, dead or injured, whose names are mentioned below. It was given as part of the “return of a right”—in the words of the minister of justice in 2015—to Jews with “a tradition of belonging to Sephardic communities of Portuguese origin.” They were not obliged to live in Portugal, like all other members of communities of Portuguese origin since 1981.

The names and stories of Portuguese citizens taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 are listed below and serve to ensure that they are never considered second-class Portuguese citizens.

Rangel’s trip to Israel took place at a time when immigration to Portugal has been discussed quite a bit. The arguments are being made in the most exaggerated terms; they range from “free entry for all” to “the return to the purity of Portugal.” The Jewish community tends to avoid getting involved in such discussions. It only remembers that it already inhabited the territory long before the foundation of the kingdom. It also recalls the friendship and cooperation between Dom Afonso Henriques and Yaish ben Yahia, which was the first milestone on a path that led to the creation of an empire that was recognized in scientific, economic, military, territorial and diplomatic terms.

Abraham Zacuto, in his Book of Genealogies, described the arrival of 120,000 Spanish Jews in 1492. They increased the numerical weight of the native Jewish community, which Lúcio de Azevedo estimated at 75,000. This makes it difficult to calculate the number of descendants within the Jewish world today. Edmonds Malka, a former deputy attorney general of the State of New Jersey and a great scholar of the Portuguese Sephardic diaspora, made an effort in this direction in the 1970s. In his book Portuguese Faithful, Malka wrote, “There are about 2 million Jews of Portuguese-Spanish origin.”

For all these reasons, it is believed that the Portuguese foreign minister’s visit to Israel could bring him closer to the Jewish state and people.

Hostages still captive in Gaza

Ariel Cunio, 28, is imprisoned in Gaza. He is a Portuguese citizen from a Turkish-Sephardic family in Izmir, that is registered in the Kahal Kadosh Portugal and the Dotar as Órfanas institute in the 17th and 18th centuries. Omer Shem Tov, whose father, Malki, is a Portuguese citizen, is still captive in Gaza. He is from the Moroccan families of Hassan and Eskenazi, with records in the British cemetery of Estrela in Lisbon.

Also being held hostage are Segev Kalfon, who is from Moroccan and Tunisian families with records of marriages in the Portuguese Jewish community of Tunis; and Tsachi Idan, who is from traditional Turkish- and Egyptian-Sephardic families.

Ran Guili was descended from the Ottoman-Sephardic Nada and Ziuni families. Guili was murdered on Oct. 7; his body is being held by Hamas.

Hostages who were released

Ofer Kalderon is a Portuguese citizen from a Greek-Sephardic family, whose records are in Kahal Kadosh Portugal, Kahal Kadosh Lisbon and Kahal Kadosh Évora of Thessaloniki.

Dror Or Ermoza is a Portuguese citizen from a family whose story, spoken in Ladino, inspired the Netflix series “The Beautiful Queen of Jerusalem.” Adina Moshe Galante is a Portuguese citizen from a Turkish family from the cities of Edirne and Izmir and is registered in the Portuguese Kahal Kadosh.

Two former hostages await the granting of Portuguese nationality: Or Levy, whose uncle, Moshe, is a Portuguese citizen from a Turkish-Sephardic family in Istanbul; and Eli Sharabi is from a Moroccan family (surname Turgeman) with records in the Jewish cemetery in Lisbon.

Portuguese citizens killed on Oct. 7

Yossi Sharabi, whose brother, Eli Sharabi, was recently released from captivity, came from a Moroccan family. Gila Peled Cohen and her son, Daniel Peled, were from a family in the Portuguese community in Tunis. Dorin Atias, whose family was from Gibraltar and Morocco, and listed in records in the Jewish cemeteries of Faro and Lisbon. Liraz Assulin Shitrit was from a Moroccan family. Nevo Arad Edry was from a Moroccan family. Moshe Saadyan was from Moroccan and Turkish families with the names Bouskila and Zubi. Gilad Ben Yehuda was from a Turkish family named Eskenazi; Idan Shtivi was from Bulgarian families named Benveniste and Naftali; Ravid Katz was from a Bulgarian family named Arieh. Oron Bira and his daughters, Tair and Tahel Bira, were from a family from the former Yugoslavia named Paredes/Pardess. Rotem Neumann was from a traditional Balkan Sephardic family.

Seriously wounded, but recovering

Portuguese citizen Menachem Hillel Ben Kalifa derives from Moroccan families named Attar and Assayag. Members of this family returned to Portugal after the Inquisition, and there are records of their names in the Jewish cemeteries of Lisbon and the Azores.