Reconstructing the Jewish legacy in the Azores through the study of their Sepher Torahs - C2TN at Açoriano Oriental Magazine
Researchers from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, C2TN and Universidade de Évora and José de Mello, the director of the Hebrew Museum Sahar Hassamaim, in the frame of the ERIHS.PT Platform were in in Ponta Delgada (Açores), to characterize a set of Sepher Torah and other documents from the Hebrew Museum Sahar Hassamaim and the Public Library and Archive Regional.
Using portable equipment from the MOLAB-PT infrastructure, the study encompasses the characterization of the parchment (origin of the skin), the inks used (mostly iron-gall inks) and the evaluation of the state of conservation. The results obtained will be helpful to contextualize these Sepher Torahs and, in a future, to ascertain the origin of similar objects.
The Torahs were brought by Sephardic Jews families who migrated from Morocco to the Azores at the beginning of the XIX century. This Jewish community settled in Azores played a relevant role for the commercial, artistic and religious development of the Islands. These families founded the Sahar Hassamain-Synagogue in 1836, and nowadays is the oldest Portugal’s synagogues built after the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian peninsula.