Lisbon Jewish community defends new EU president against antisemitism charge by Jews in Porto

A Jewish community in Portugal levels antisemitism allegations against incoming European Council President Antonio Costa, prompting a congregation in Lisbon to dismiss the charge outright.

The Jewish Community of Lisbon’s defense of Costa, a former prime minister of Portugal, follows statements by Gabriel Senderowicz, the president of the Jewish Community of Porto, to the Jewish News Syndicate.

Costa “has a history of animosity towards Jews, the law, and the Jewish community and tried to shrink and attack it in his home country during his tenure as prime minister,” Senderowicz is quoted as telling JNS in an article published yesterday.

The Lisbon Jewish community responds in a statement that “at no point did anyone feel concrete expressions of antisemitism” by Costa.

The Jewish Community of Porto is on record as claiming that it’s currently the victim of “Soviet-style antisemitism,” as stated in a short documentary film on the community’s official YouTube channel.

The alleged persecution is over an ongoing criminal investigation on suspicion of fraud into the Porto community’s handling of applications for Portuguese citizenship under a law that went into effect in 2015 that facilitates the naturalization of descendants of Sephardic Jews who had been expelled from Portugal during the Inquisition.

He did “complicate” the naturalization process of applicants for citizenship, the Lisbon community says, but he did it “temporarily” and due to “alarm over reports… of abuse in the process,” and “not for any antisemitic motive.”