Synagogue

The Lisbon Synagogue, located at 59 Rua Alexandre Herculano, was the result of a long-standing effort by the city’s Jewish community. It was inaugurated on May 18, 1904 (Sivan 5, 5564, in the Hebrew calendar) under the name Shaaré Tikva (“Gates of Hope”).
It is the first synagogue built from scratch in Portugal since the forced conversions and official extinction of Portuguese Judaism in 1497. With a rectangular plan and facing Jerusalem, according to Jewish ritual, it has been considered a property of public interest since 2002.

The construction of the Shaaré Tikva Synagogue

Since 1810, there had been several houses of prayer in Lisbon, but they hardly met the necessary conditions for worship, since they were located on modest floors. Thus, despite the difficulties caused by the lack of official recognition, the community manages to buy, in the name of private individuals, a plot of land for the construction of a building from scratch, proper and dignified.
The Synagogue project was designed by one of the greatest architects of the time, Miguel Ventura Terra. Located at no. 59 of Rua Alexandre Herculano, it had to be built within a walled backyard, since it was not allowed to build with a façade to the public road of a temple that was not of the Catholic religion, then the official religion of the State.
The First Stone was laid in 1902, and the Shaaré-Tikva Synagogue was finally inaugurated in 1904, culminating an effort of more than 50 years by the Jews of Lisbon.

First steps towards the construction of the Synagogue

There are records of 3 small prayer centers in the city of Lisbon in 1810, which operated in private houses, located on small floors in Lisbon. In 1813, what was considered the first public synagogue by Rabbi Abraham Dabella was created in Beco da Linheira (parish of Sé), with the name Shaar Hashamaim (“Portico of Heaven”), which was also the name of the ancient Sephardic community of London. However, this could not be considered as an official Synagogue, since the community had not yet been formally recognized, and was demolished during the expansion of the Lisbon Customs House located there, in the early twentieth century.
The nineteenth century was marked by the struggle of Portuguese Jews towards the union of the community, despite the rivalries between different congregations. In 1880, Abraham Anahory sought to call for the union of the Jews in Lisbon and the constitution of the “Israeli colony of Lisbon”. This effort achieved its first results in 1894, when the services of the Shehitah (ritual slaughter of meat) were unified, and obtained its most visible effects in 1897, when Simão Anahory finally managed to hold the “Inaugural Session of the Israeli Committee of Lisbon”, in a General Assembly chaired by Leão Amzalak, on March 14 of that year.
In this session, the first Israeli Committee of Lisbon was elected, which chose Abraham Bensaúde as honorary president and Simão Anahory as effective president. A commission was also organized for the construction of a single synagogue, with the purpose of serving the whole Community.
However, this body encountered several difficulties in achieving its objectives, largely because it was unable to obtain official recognition from the then Portuguese monarchical regime.
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Building of the Synagogue

In 1901, a plot of land was chosen for the construction of the Synagogue of Lisbon Shaaré Tikva (“Doors of Hope”), which was purchased in the name of private individuals, given the legal impossibility of the community acquiring it in their name.
According to the current law, the façade of the building could not be next to the public road, since only the temples of the Catholic religion could be directly visible from the street, as this is the official religion of the Portuguese State. For this reason, the Synagogue had to be built within a walled yard, with a high gate to the street, which has remained to this day.
The synagogue project was commissioned to the renowned architect Miguel Ventura Terra, notorious for being one of the favorites of the elites of the time. Appointed in 1896 Director of Public Buildings and Lighthouses, he also signed the project for the Royal Chapel of the Ajuda Palace, commissioned by Queen Maria Pia, wife of King D. Luís.
Ventura Terra, who studied at the École de Beaux-Arts in Paris, came to be responsible for several facilities in the city of Lisbon, such as the Camões and Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho Lyceums, the Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital, the conversion of the Convent of São Bento into the Assembly of the Republic, among many others.
The construction of the temple took place under the direction of Abílio Pereira de Campos, a prestigious civil builder of the time, and the entire project was supported by Joaquim Bensaúde, historian and honorary president of the Jewish Community of Lisbon.
The First Stone, or Cornerstone of the Synagogue, was laid on May 25, 1902 (Iyar 18, 5662, in the Hebrew calendar) by Abraham H. Levy, with the presence of Leão Amzalak, President of the Jewish Committee of Lisbon, and the entire Jewish community of the time. The official inauguration was on May 18, 1904 (Sivan 5, 5564, in the Hebrew calendar) and was attended by the entire Jewish community of Lisbon and the Rabbi of Gibraltar, Moisés Benazim.
In 1948, restoration works were carried out on the building, with a major expansion directed by the architect Carlos Ramos and with the financial support of Joaquim Bensaúde.
As part of the centenary of the inauguration of the Lisbon Synagogue, several renovations were made to the building and extensive restoration and expansion works were carried out between 2002 and 2004: the wall that hid the Synagogue from the street was torn down and the interior color and lighting were changed. This project was directed by the architects João Seabra and Ricardo Gordon and had the support of the Portuguese State through the Directorate-General for National Buildings and Monuments, the Lisbon City Council and many other individuals linked to the Lisbon Jewish community.
On September 9, 2004, a commemorative session was held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the construction of the Synagogue, which had as guests the great Sephardic Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Moshé Amar, the President of the Portuguese Republic Jorge Sampaio, several representatives of the Islamic community, the Bahai Faith, Protestant churches and the Patriarchate of Lisbon. In that year, the Rabbi was Boaz Pash (from Jerusalem, Israel).
This year 2024 marks the 120th anniversary of its construction and its permanent maintenance and care continues to be for the Jewish Community of Lisbon one of its highest priorities in order to maintain the integrity of its heritage and reinforce the intention of creating in the Synagogue the spiritual center of the community and a meeting space, of conviviality, study and prayer for all ages and genders – in essence, an emblematic space of a living and dynamic community.