HaLapid Winter 2010

“Todo se ilumina para aquêle que busca a luz, BEN-ROSH”

These words appear on the cover of this publication. They were taken from the original publication that gave us the title: HaLapid.
In the Summer 2010 issue I wrote a short history of this publication. I have been asked to expand on the history of our ancestor publication: the Ha-Lapid that was published by Artur Carlos Barros Basto in Portugal more than eighty years ago.

Captain Barros Basto was born into a crypto Jewish family in Portugal. He learned of his Jewish background from his grandfather who, on his deathbed announced that he wanted to be buried as a Jew.

Barros Basto entered the military where he became an officer, lead troops and was decorated in World War I, having experienced a gas attack in the battles of Flanders.

After the war he decided to live openly as a Jew and in December 1920 in the rabbinical court of Tangier in Spanish Morocco, he formally returned to Judaism.

From his native Oporto in northern Portugal, he embarked on a campaign to encourage other secret Jews to return to their ancestral religion. Traveling in full military regalia around the country, often to isolated villages were access was possible only by foot or donkey, he established synagogues and persuaded many to return to Judaism.

He traveled to London, Amsterdam and New York where he was able to get the backing of wealthy Sephardic Jews in support of his endeavors. Soon he was able to build the beautiful Mekor Haim synagogue in Oporto. The synagogue still stands and still conducts regular Jewish services.

Barros Basto also built a yeshiva that operated for nine years, produced many books on Jewish history, law and traditions and started the publication Ha-Lapid (The Torch). He adopted the Hebrew name, Ben Rosh (Son of the Head) for the articles that he wrote.

In 1928 António de Oliveira Salazar established an authoritarian state in Portugal which recognized the Catholic Church as having a “special position” within the nation. The neo-fascist “Estado Novo” (New State) felt threatened by the activities of Barros Basto and condemned him with attacks on his moral capacity. He was stripped of his military rank and forbidden to wear his uniform. All of this despite the fact that he had been cleared of all charges by both civil and military authorities. Many of the charges against him were based on anonymous complaints.

He fell into disgrace and many people distanced themselves from his movement. Crypto Jewish communities, such as the one in Belmonte, drifted back into secrecy.

He became known as the “Portuguese Dryfus.” There is now a campaign to rehabilitate his reputation ( see: http://philosemitism.blogspot.com/2008/02/campaign-to-rehabilitate-captain-barros.html)
Inacio Steinhardt, a Portuguese reporter, now resident in Israel, has written a biography of Barros Basto. Unfortunately, an English translation of the book has not yet been produced. I contacted Steinhardt and asked him to send me information about the history of the original Ha-Lapid. I also asked him to translate one of the early articles from Ha-Lapid and send a photocopy of the original front page. They appear following this article.
Here is what he sent me about the early history of the publication:

History of HaLapid

By Inacio Steinhardt

Artur Carlos Barros Basto, the founder of HaLapid

The first issue of Ha-Lapid was published in April 1927. The last issue, which had the number 158, was published in 1958. In the beginning it was published monthly. The last issues, published when the captain was already ailing, where published at intervals of more or less six months. Each issue contained eight pages.

Barros Basto started the publication of Ha-Lapid as a means of communication between his office in Oporto and the crypto-Jews who were scattered in the villages of the provinces of Tras-os-Montes and Beiras, in a period of time when communications were scarce. The contents were first and above all encouragement to the crypto-Jews to declare themselves openly as Jews. Freedom of religion had been established in Portugal in 1910.

Ha-Lapid also presented rudimental lessons of mainstream Judaism, little Jewish stories, articles about the history of the Jews in Portugal, and news items about the Communities of Oporto and Lisbon, Palestine, Jewish communities in the world, etc.

One of the students of the Rosh Pinah Yeshiva devoted himself to the task of collecting in the villages the prayers used by the crypto-Jewish women which were transmitted from mother to daughter, generation after generation. This man was my late friend Amilcar Paulo, who later published many books on this subject. Thus the Ha-Lapid collections, together with Amilcar Paulo’s books, are an important source for those prayers.

The publication was not directly subsidized, to the best of my knowledge. But it was part of the annual budget that was covered by the London Portuguese Marranos Committee. In the last years it was the only source of income of Barros Basto.

The paper was sold by subscription, at a very low price. There were subscribers from abroad, mostly from Brazil. Several Jewish papers in pre-WWII time have asked for exchange with Ha-Lapid. It was sent free of charge to the Jewish Community of Lisbon (one copy) and several members have subscribed to it. There was no other Jewish paper in Portugal

As with any other publication in Portugal, the paper had to be submitted to the Press Censorship, and the words “Verified by the Censorship” had to be printed in the paper.

I don’t know of any articles that have been rejected by the Censor, but Halapid #2 is very rare (I only have a Xerox copy that somebody made for me) and there were rumors that it was forbidden by the Censor. Frankly I don’t see any reason for that in the copy I have…

Barros Basto himself had been a censor for a short period as part of his army service. However he was considered an opponent to the regime and all his activities were closely watched by the Political Police. After democracy was restored by the 1974 revolution, his file became available to researchers. My co-author of BB’s biography has had access to almost all the information in the file.

There are several stories of people of the villages that have learned about the paper, wrote to the Captain asking to subscribe and even made appointments with him to tell their story.

Particularly interesting is an old man from the village of Rebordelo, Alfredo Gaspar, a very proud crypto-Jew, who came to Oporto to show him a manuscript he had inherited with about 100 prayers in Portuguese. I have met Alfredo’s children. The book is bound in leather. From the handwriting it seems to have been written probably in mid-19th century. To me it looks as if a man had copied all the prayers from his wife’s mouth. Spelling is very poor. At the end of book there are pages with vital dates of the family (birth, marriage, death and so on), very similar to what was a Jewish usage.