Faro

FARO, city in S. Portugal, Algrave province. Jews were organized there as a community in the 15^th century. The first book to be printed in Portugal, the Hebrew Pentateuch, in square type and vocalized, was published in Faro in 1487 by Don Samuel Porteira (see *Incunabula). By 1494 (or 1496?) the Porteiras had printed at least 14 Talmud tractates, of which fragments only have survived. At the expulsion from Portugal in 1497 David Porteira went to Pesaro (Italy) where he continued printing Talmud tractates. Traces of the Farense type can also be found in Fez. Members of a Faro family (Marranos?) lived in Bayonne, London, Dublin, and Jamaica in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. At the beginning of the 19^th century Jews again settled in Faro; a cemetery was opened in 1820, and a synagogue in 1850. Early in the 20^th century the community comprised about 50 families. In 1970 there were no more than five Jews living in the whole province, and the two synagogues were in disuse.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

M. Kayserling, Geschichte der Juden in Portugal (1867), index; J. Mendes dos Remedios, Os judeus em Portugal (1895), index; S. Seligmann, in: ZHB, 12 (1908), 16–19; M.B. Amzalak, Tipografia Hebraica em Portugal… (1922), 19–21; J. Bloch, in: Bulletin of the New York Public Library, 42 (1938), 26ff. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.F. Mascarenhas, Dos documentos arqueológicos recentemente achados sobre os judeus no Algarve, (1980); J.M. Abecassis, in: Anais do Municipio de Faro; Boletim Cultural, 15 (1985), 45–74; idem, in: Memórias da Academia das Ciéncias de Lisboa, 25 (1986), 439–534; A. Iria, in: Memórias da Academia das Ciéncias, 25 (1986), 293–438.