History of the Jews in Belmonte

[2] However, the fact that besides the reliquary, there is no written evidence of Belmonte's Jewish community before or after 1297 means it cannot be confirmed whether the continuous presence of crypto-Jews was maintained or severed at some point(s).

"[4] He later met with this rival, Baltasar Pereira de Sousa, who confessed to him that he and his family were not only of Jewish descent, but were still secretly practicing Judaism.

[4] Following this, Schwarz would go onto study the Jewish community of Belmonte for eight more years, before publishing a book on them in 1925, titled "The New Christians in Portugal in the Twentieth Century.

"[4] He observed that they did not practice circumcision, kept Sabbath candles submerged in clay jars, and constructed sausages out of flour and chicken called Alheira, before they were hung up on windows to prevent arousing suspicion from local authorities.

[5] In Portugal, it was a common practice to hang up chouriços to dry, which were made of pork - a meat that Jewish people don't eat.

[7][2] According to Garcia, Schwarz's arrival and the generally more lax atmosphere of Portugal at the time triggered a period of openness among the community, no longer as afraid to hide their faith.

[4] Three young men from Belmonte went to study in the yeshiva of Porto to become future teachers and rabbis; 1928, they were present at Passover services, and gave a number of Hebrew-language and religious basics lessons to some of the older members of the community.

[3] António de Oliveira Salazar's rise to power caused the Portuguese Jewish community to retreat from public displays of their faith.

[8] In 2003, the Belmonte project was founded under the American Sephardi Federation in order to raise funds for acquiring Jewish education material and services for the community.