ion. Kol Nedrei was composed much earlier but it is reasoned that it became popular at this time. Many people frequented the synagogue secretly, risking their lives and used the text of Kol Nidrei like a formula of giving up the vows imposed by the Inquisition.
Still inside macabre ironies of the History, in 12th of October of 1535, Pope Paul III granted general pardon to the Crypto-Jews creating, in the following year, the Inquisition in Portugal. It was also in October, of 1765, the last public “auto de fé” carried out in Lisbon, which condemned Judaism.
While remembering the history and the past sufferings, Jewish people must proclaim, with the conviction of a surviving humanism, amid fire and blood: Torture, never again!
Published in Visão Judaica # 96,December 2010(In Portuguese)
* Jane Bichmacher de Glasman is a writer, Ph.D. in Hebrew Language, Jewish Literatures and Culture, Creator and former-director of the Program of Jewish Studies at State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Professor and coordinator of the Department of Hebrew Studies at UERJ and UFRJ (retired).
from the December 2010 Edition of the Jewish Magazine
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