Dear Jewish Porto Friends,   

We are excited to share with you that a small group of us have been working behind the scenes to build a meaningful, progressive Jewish experience here in Porto. This entails creating a calendar of events, securing space and provisions for these events, and ensuring that Rabbi Georgette can join us in person from her home on the island of Porto Santo.

We also have a wonderful pro bono legal team helping to create a nonprofit entity, an executive board and set of bylaws, and membership to the European Union of Progressive Judaism (EUPJ), an umbrella organization linking and supporting more than 170 Liberal, Progressive and Reform communities in 17 countries across Europe.

Our goal is to be ready with a full calendar, annual budget, and membership fee structure in place by the High Holy Days.

It's no small feat to build an inclusive congregation. To move forward with all that we plan to accomplish, we must create a working membership or else basic expenses will fall on the shoulders of a few. 

Until we can offer memberships, we plan to offer four events:

• Two Friday night Shabbat services with kiddush and Oneg (March 22 and August 9)

• First night Pesach seder (April 22)

• Havdalah/Lag b’omer picnic on the beach (May 26)

For the first Shabbat on March 22, the organizers are covering the bulk of the cost, although donations will be accepted on our website https://www.ppjandf.org//_paylink/AY49ECN4 or at the door by QR code. Going forward, we will be ticketing these events as we did for Hanukkah to cover the cost of venue rental, supplies, and the Rabbi’s fees and travel. Prices are still TBD; we are working to keep them as low as possible.

The March 22 service and Oneg will be held from 6-8pm in the Well House at St. James Anglican Church, Largo da Maternidade de Júlio Dinis 45, 4050-014 Porto. Enter through the wooden door and head to the smaller building behind the church. Parking is available on the church grounds.

We could not be doing any of this without our amazing “Service Team” including:

• Georgette Kennebrae, Rabbi

• Linda Kates, Cantor 

• Cindy Shapiro, Cantorial Soloist

• David Kates, Musical Director

and a handful of volunteers with communications, tech and finance experience including myself, Cindy Shapiro and Steve Goldberg; and our stellar legal volunteers from the law firm Cotarelli e Rodrigues Advogadas.

In addition, we will also be reaching out to additional volunteers to lend a hand in the creation of an executive board. This executive board is a necessary step in obtaining nonprofit status, as well as applying for membership with the EUPJ. If you want to be involved or have any special skill sets that you think would be helpful, please let me, Linda, Cindy, or Steve know.

A dedicated contribution from everyone will help make this a home for us all.  Thank you for being a part of this very special Jewish expat community. I think we are so fortunate to have one another in Porto and to be building this incredible congregation together. You are already a part of our present; now be part of our future.

Warmly,

Sharon Cohn Campbell