Kadoorie - Mekor Haim Synagogue - Porto

The largest synagogue of the Iberian Peninsula is one of the largest in Europe.

Built as a centre of religious and community life of the Jewish Community of Oporto, the Kadoorie Synagogue - Mekor Haim (Source of Life), was inaugurated in 1938. It was built, in particularly, when the Nazi party rose to power in Germany and at the beginning of the New State in Portugal.

The constitution of the community and the construction of the synagogue crosses with Artur Barros Basto (1887-1961), the most important figure of the so-called Rescue of the “Marranos”, from the crypto-Jew communities in the inner and northern regions of Portugal. The rescue of the “marranos” was a movement, which searched crypto-Jew communities within Portugal who had survived the inquisitorial persecution, such as Belmonte, to return to Jewish practice.

The land was acquired in 1929 and the construction started in the very same year. However, the construction work was slow, due to the lack of financial resources, despite the support given by the Committee of the Spanish-Portuguese Jews in London. In 1933, the construction works received a substantial boost following the death of Laura Kadoorie, the wife of the Jewish philanthropist of Iraqi origin, Sir Elly Kadoorie. Their children decided to pay tribute to their mother, descended from Portuguese Jews fleeing the Inquisition, giving the means to build a large part of the Oporto Synagogue, which was renamed Kadoorie - Mekor Haim Synagogue.