Collection of 17 liturgical works, all produced for the Marrano community of Porto by the Instituto Teologico Israelita, Yeshibah Rosh-Pinah of Porto

(Barros Basto, Arturo Carlos de).

Porto

1927-1948

Portuguese texts translated from the Hebrew by Col. Arturo Carlos de Barros Basto (Ben-Rosh): Birkath Ha-Mazon, Hazkarath Ha-Methim, Ha-Tikvah, Sabbath & Festival Services (9), and 5 others

Long believed extinct, the remnant of a Marrano, or crypto-Jewish presence in Northern Portugal, experienced a short-lived revival in the first half of the 20th-century primarily due to the indefatigable efforts of Captain Arturo Carlos de Barros Basto, a decorated military officer and hero of Portugal's 1910 Revolution, who led the open return to Judaism of the Marranos of Portugal. After the establishment of the Portuguese Republic in 1910, Capt. Barros Basto (1887-1961), of Marrano origin, began to study his Jewish roots and the codes of his faith, so enabling a return to normative Judaism. Following his conversion, he started a project he called the Work of Redemption, a movement to lead the return of thousands of Portuguese descendants of Jews who had been forcibly baptized almost a half-millenia earlier. In order to establish a stronger foundation for this work, Barros Basto (now titled with the more Hebraic-sounding "Ben-Rosh"), began construction of a core-community in the City of Porto, with the assistance of the London-based Marrano Committee (Cecil Roth was an influential supporter). Captain Barros Basto also established the Rosh Pinah theological seminary and a magnificent art nouveau synagogue, Mekor Haim was eventually inaugurated in 1938. The fruits of this work of redemption occurred particularly in the region of Tras-os-Montes and Beiras, with the organization of new communities in Bragança, Vila Real, Mirandela and Covilha. Later, the discovery of the crypto-Jews of Belmonte gave even greater visibility to this Portuguese phenomena known as Marranism. See Elvira de Azevedo Mea & Inácio Steinhard, Ben-Rosh: A Biography of Captain Barros Basto, the Apostle of the Marranos (1997)