Saturday 14 June 2008

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX

The Flight of the Phoenix is a 1964 novel by Elleston Trevor and a 1965 film adaptation. The plot involves the crash of a transport aircraft in the middle of a desert and the survivors' desperate attempt to save themselves.
The film was directed by Robert Aldrich, and stars James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Hardy Krüger, George Kennedy, Dan Duryea, Ronald Fraser and Ian Bannen.


Plot

Pilot Frank Towns (James Stewart) and navigator Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) are ferrying a mixed bag of passengers out of the Sahara, among them oil workers, a couple of British soldiers and a German who was visiting his brother. An unexpected sandstorm forces the aircraft down, damaging it, killing two of the men, and severely injuring a third.

The survivors wait for rescue but begin to worry as the storm has blown them far off course, away from where searchers would look for them. After several days, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) marches towards a distant oasis together with another passenger. His aide Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser) feigns a leg injury and does not join Harris. Days later, Harris barely manages to return to the crash site.

As the water begins to run out, Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Krüger), a precise, arrogant German aeronautical engineer, proposes a radical solution. He claims they can rebuild a new aircraft from the wreckage, using the only working engine and adding skids to take off. They set to work.

At one point they spot a party of nomadic Arabs. Captain Harris decides to ask them for help, but Sergeant Watson refuses to accompany him. Instead, the doctor (Christian Marquand) - a person familiar with the local Arab dialect - goes with him. The next day, Towns finds their looted bodies, throats cut, and the nomads gone.

Later, Towns finds out that Dorfmann's job is designing model aircraft, not real, full-scale ones. Afraid of the effect on morale, he and Moran keep their discovery secret, though they now believe Dorfmann's plan is doomed. However, they turn out to be wrong. The aircraft is reborn, like the mythical Phoenix. It flies the passengers, lying on the wings, to an oasis and civilization.

Production

Locations

Principal photography started 26 April 1965 at the 20th Century-Fox Studios and 20th Century-Fox Ranch, California. Other filming locations, simulating the desert, were Buttercup Valley, Arizona and [[Pilot Knob Mesa, California. The flying sequences were all filmed at Pilot Knob Mesa near Winterhaven, located in Imperial Valley, California on the northern fringes of Yuma, Arizona.

Aircraft used

In 2005, Hollywood aviation historian Simon Beck identified the aircraft used in the film:
Fairchild C-82A Packet, N6887C - flying shots.
Fairchild C-82A Packet, N4833V - outdoor location wreck.
Fairchild C-82A Packet, N53228 - indoor studio wreck.
Fairchild R4Q-1 Flying Boxcar (the USMC C-119C variant), BuNo. 126580 - non-flying Phoenix prop.
Tallmantz Phoenix P-1, N93082 - flying Phoenix aircraft.
North American O-47A, N4725V - second flying Phoenix.

The C-82As were from Steward-Davies Inc. at Long Beach, CA, while the O-47A came from the Air Museum – Planes of Fame in California. The R4Q-1 was purchased from Allied Aircraft of Phoenix, AZ. The aerial camera platform was a B-25J Mitchell, N1042B, which was also used in the 1970 film Catch-22. The flying sequences were flown by Paul Mantz and Frank Tallman, co-owners of the Tallmantz Aviation.

A famous racing/stunt/movie pilot and collector of warplanes, Paul Mantz was flying the Tallmantz Phoenix P-1, the machine that was "made of the wreckage", in a low level pass in front of the cameras when he caught a skid on a hillock. The movie model crashed and broke apart, killing Mantz and seriously injuring stuntman Bobby Rose onboard.[1]

Although principal photography "wrapped" on 13 August 1965, in order to complete filming, a North American O-47A N4725V from the Planes of Fame Air Museum (Claremont, California) was modified and used as a flying Phoenix stand-in. With the canopy removed, a set of skids attached to the main landing gear as well as ventral fin added to the tail, made it a visual look-a-like. Filming using the O-47A was completed in October/November 1965. It appears in the last flying scenes, painted to look like the earlier Phoenix P-1.

The final production utilized a mix of footage that included the O-47A, the "cobbled-together" Phoenix and Phoenix P-1.

Reception

Critically acclaimed as a tense, character-driven study of men in adversity, The Flight of the Phoenix was nominated for two Academy Awards: Ian Bannen for Supporting Actor and Michael Luciano for Film Editing.

See also

Coffman engine starter, the starter system which uses an explosive cartridge to supply gas pressure. In the film, Towns and Dorfmann have a big argument on how to use their few remaining cartridges to try to start the engine of the rebuilt aircraft.

References

Notes

1^ Check-Six.com - The Final Flight of the Phoenix

Bibliography

Cox, Stephen. It's a Wonderful Life: A Memory Book. Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House, 2003. ISBN 1-58182-337-1.
Eliot, Mark. Jimmy Stewart: A Biography. New York: Random House, 2006. ISBN 1-4000-5221-1.
Hardwick, Jack and Schnepf, Ed. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
The Jimmy Stewart Museum Home Page. The Jimmy Stewart Museum Home Page. Retrieved: 18 February 2007.
Jones, Ken D., McClure, Arthur F. and Twomey, Alfred E. The Films of James Stewart. New York: Castle Books, 1970.
Munn, Michael. Jimmy Stewart: The Truth Behind The Legend. Fort Lee, New Jersey: Barricade Books Inc., 2006. ISBN 1-56980-310-2.
Pickard, Roy. Jimmy Stewart: A Life in Film. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. ISBN 0-312-08828-0.
Robbins, Jhan. Everybody's Man: A Biography of Jimmy Stewart. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1985. ISBN 0-399-12973-1.
Thomas, Tony. A Wonderful Life: The Films and Career of James Stewart. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1988. ISBN 0-8065-1081-1.

External links

Happy Feet Kiss/Heartbreak Hotel

Happy Feet - My Way (Robin Williams)

Happy Feet - Somebody to love

SOMEBODY TO LOVE

Can anybody find me somebody to love?
Each morning I get up I die a little
Can barely stand on my feet
Take a look in the mirror and cry
Lord what you're doing to me
I have spent all my years in believing you
But I just can't get no relief, Lord!
Somebody, somebody
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

I work hard every day of my life
I work till I ache my bones
At the end I take home my hard earned pay all on my own -
I get down on my knees
And I start to pray
Till the tears run down from my eyes
Lord - somebody - somebody
Can anybody find me - somebody to love?

(He works hard)

Everyday - I try and I try and I try -
But everybody wants to put me down
They say I'm goin' crazy
They say I got a lot of water in my brain
Got no common sense
I got nobody left to believe
Yeah - yeah yeah yeah

Oh Lord
Somebody - somebody
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

Got no feel, I got no rhythm
I just keep losing my beat
I'm ok, I'm alright
Ain't gonna face no defeat
I just gotta get out of this prison cell
Someday I'm gonna be free, Lord!

Find me somebody to love
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF PORTUGAL (4)

15th.century synagogue uncovered in Oporto

By ©Inácio Steinhardt

Friday, October 28, 2005

A Aron Hakodesh was discovered behind a false wall, while adapting an ancient empty house for a daycare institution for the elderly

The descendants of the "anusim" (forcibly converted) in the Northern Portuguese city of Oporto are excited.
The place of the 15th. Century synagogue of rabbi Isaac Aboab, in the old Jewish quarter of Olivais, has been discovered.
This is rabbi Isaac Aboab II, "the Last Gaon of Castile", who in 1492, a few months before the expulsion of the Jews from Spain by the "Catholic Kings" Fernando and Isabel, went to Portugal, with another 30 prominent Spanish Jews, to negotiate with King John II, the transfer of those who would choose to wait in the neighboring country for an eventual abrogation of the evil.
They were received with honor by the King and finally an agreement was reached. Six hundred Jewish families would be allowed to settle in Portugal, in consideration for a large contribution to the king's treasury.
All other Spanish Jews wishing to escape through Portugal would be allowed in, against payment of a head tax. Those would have to leave the country within eight months. The king would endeavor to supply ships for their departure to other safe places. Those that would eventually stay longer than the stipulated term would become the king's slaves.
For Aboab and the 30 families that came with him the king ordered the allotation of suitable houses in the "Judiaria do Olival" , the newest Jewish quarter in the city of Oporto.
The "Judiarias" were closed residence quarters, were the Jews inhabitants had to live. They all had gates and guards, and no Jew was to be found outside this ghetto after the bells of the churches rang for the evening prayer of "Ave Maria".
The "Judiaria of Olival" was created in 1386 by order of King João I, when the old "Judiaria of Miragaia", in the outskirts of city, became too crowded.
It was located in Rua de S. Miguel, a very wide street which later gave place to two news streets, S. Miguel e Victoria.
The "Judiaria" had it's own synagogue and all other Jewish and own administrative institutions.
Rabbi Isaac Aboab died in 1493, eight months after the expulsion from Spain.
He was spared the trauma of the forcibly conversion in 1497 of all the Jews of Portugal, native and refugees from Spain alike, who were unable to leave the country before the deadline imposed by João's successor, Manuel I.
The expulsion of the Jews from Portugal was on of the terms of agreement for the marriage of Manuel with the daughter of Fernando and Isabel, an important match for Manuel, who expected to inherit the crown of Spain.
But the presence of his Jewish subjects was too important to the king for their financial support and for their skills that contributed largely to the Portuguese sea discoveries.
Manuel ordered them to leave and at the same time perpetrated a most cruel machination to keep them in the country. Instead of letting them out and supplying ships for that purpose, he forced them to convert to the Christian religion and remain in Portugal.
The rabbi's son, Abraham Aboab, received as New-Christian the name of Duarte Dias. His grandson and namesake, Isaac Aboab, was Henrique Gomes.
Henrique Gomes was the father of the famous Immanuel Aboab, the author of «Nomologia o Discursos Legales», written in Venice, in Spanish. He was born as a Christian, but we don't know his Portuguese name.
Immanuel, who was born in Oporto in 1556, wrote in his book that he still remembered from his youth his great-grandfather's synagogue, before it was destroyed.
In 1497 all synagogues in Portugal were confiscated and many of them became Catholic churches years later.
In 1598 a monastery, which later became a church, by the name of S. Bento da Victória, was built in the ancient Jewish quarter. Until recently there were rumors that the church has been built in the place of the ancient synagogue and that the reason to call it "da Victoria" (of the victory) was meant to celebrate the victory of the Christ over the Law of Moses.
Recently, the historian professor Elvira Mea, a specialist on the Inquisition at the Oporto University, had the opportunity to visit a house, which had belonged to the Misericordia of Oporto and had been donated to a priest who intended to adapt it for a daycare house for old people.
While proceeding to the necessary reparations they noticed the existence of a false wall. After breaking it down they found that the original wall had a sort of built-in stone closet, which, according to professor Mea must have been a Ehal (Aron Hako-desh) where the Torah scrolls are kept.
The find is located in the East wall in the ground floor of a two-store house, a few houses apart from the church.
Outside the house, in his back side, there is a stairway, which is known by the public as "Escadinhas da Esnoga". Esnoga is a miss-pronunciation, in ancient Portuguese, of the word "sinagoga". It is still used today by the Lisbon Sephardic Jews to designate their synagogue.
Ancient maps of the town show a today non-existent alley, the "Viela da Sinagoga", which may have been near this house.
Furthermore, a building two houses apart from this, is indicated by tourist guides as having been where the New-Christian Gabriel da Costa was born and lived before departing to Amsterdam, where he returned to Judaism to became the famous and unfortunate Uriel da Costa.
Elvira Mea is convinced that this house, while apparently belonging to the 16th. Century, has been adapted from the original 15th. century synagogue. She believes that the house of worship may have been used for secret prayers by the "anusim" long after the forced conversion.
The descendents of the ancient "anusim", now affiliated in an association by the name of "Ladina-Sefarad" with its headquarters in Oporto, have a plan:
They want to induce the Institute for the preservation of historical buildings to put an embargo on the works been done in this house.
They want the Misericordia to allocate another house, from the many that are vacant in the same area, for the daycare institution.
And they intend to open a Bank account to collect donations worldwide, first to compensate the priest for the large expenses he already incurred in the restoration of the house, and that he will need now to start over in a new place.
And they want to recover the house as a museum-synagogue, with the hope that new findings still may be there to be uncovered when making the necessary adaptations.

Givat Savion, Israel, October 2005

© Inacio Steinhardt

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF PORTUGAL (3)

A Synopsis of the History of the Jews in Portugal

By ©Inacio Steinhardt

Friday, December 20, 2002

"I lived peacefully as owner of my house, a house full of God's blessings in famous Lisbon, a city and a mother in the Kingdom of Portugal"
.......
"Suddenly, however, the day of afliction, punishment and shame arrived for all His people, for Israel His inheritance, the children of Jacob, His chosen ones..."
(Isaac Abravanel, "Commentary to the Book of Joshua", Introduction)


To understand the relevance of the Jewish presence in Portugal, we must recall the antiquity of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula and the roots of Portugal as a nation.

The truth is that we don’t have any written evidence of the time and circumstances of the arrival of the first Jews to the territory that was to be Portugal.

There are several legends spread about Jews arriving as settlers or merchants, with the Phoenician ships, from Sidon and Tyre, or with the ships that King Salomon, an ally of the Phoenicians, has built in Etzion-Gaber, near Eilat of today. Or they may have come as fugitives, and prisoners, at the time of the destruction of the first and second temples of Jerusalem, respectively by the Babylonians and the Romans.

Curiously enough, at a certain time, the Jews of Spain and Portugal have claimed that they could not be accused of the death of Jesus, because they were already here at the time. This happened 2000 years ago!

When threatened with expulsion they alleged their right to live in a land that was inhabited by their ancestors for so many centuries.

Written documents regarding the existence of Jews in the peninsula date from the 3rd. Century BCE, and specifically in the area where Portugal is today, from the 6th Century CE.

The late is an epitaph found in the Algarve.

The identity of Portugal as an independent country dates from the 12th century.

Thus the existence of Jewish communities in Portugal precedes Portugal’s own origins.

Therefor we must look at whole picture of the Iberian Peninsula, during the Reconquista from the Moors. From the Jewish point of view, this period can be divided in two quite different stages.

During the first stage the three ethnical communities, Christians, Jews and Arabs lived together in mutual acceptance of their different cultures (convivencia).

Thinks changed when the Christians had already recovered from the Arabs most of the territory of the Peninsula. In this second stage they were engaged in the dissemination of the Christian religion as the sole true belief. Then the infidels – Arabs and Jews – were merely tolerated.

During the first stage Jews lived in the cities held by Christians as well in those ruled by the Moslems. The fights between those two peoples were not always exempt of momentary alliances between Christian and Arab rulers, in collusion to overthrow rival leaders.

The Jews were instrumental in many diplomatic missions as much as they were later associated in the building of the new cities and the new states that emerged from the final victory of Christians.

A nobleman from Burgundy, France, had come to the Peninsula, to help the Christians in their Reconquista wars against the Arabs (Moors).

In recompense the King of Castile, Afonso VI, gave his daughter, Tareja (Teresa) in marriage to this nobleman, Henry of Burgundy and granted him the earldom of Portucale, a tiny territory whose name derived from its main city Porto (port, sometimes called Oporto in English) and Cale, a fortified island situated in front of the city, in the Douro River.

After the death of Count Henry (Henrique), his young son Afonso Henriques rebelled against his grandfather and proclaimed the independence of Portugal, of which he became the first king in 1140..

After many bloody battles, Castile finally recognized the independence of Portugal.

Don Afonso Henriques started then his own Reconquista, aiming at enlarging his kingdom at the expenses of the Arab rulers, south of Oporto to southern shores of the Algarve.

The most important adviser to the Portuguese King in the conquest of new territories from the Moors, was the Jew Don Yahia ibn Yahia (or Ibn Ya’ish).

The Ibn Yahia’s, like the Abrabanel’s, both prominent Jewish families even today, are considered by family tradition, to descend from King David himself, by two sons of the exiliarch (Reish Galuta) Hizkiahu.

In the social structure of the society in the Middle Ages the Jews, as the Moors, were considered an entity apart, in fact owned by the king.

D. Dinis, the forth king of Portugal, referred in the official documents, to his Jewish subjects as “meus judeus” (my Jews). He could impose on them whatever duties, restrictions, missions or taxes, as he might want.

D. Afonso Henriques, the first King, established the base for a Jewish administrative structure of the country, parallel with the administrative structure of the rest of the population. Special legislation applied to the Jews, thus treating the Jews as legal and social exceptions.

The country was divided in seven districts, each one having his own Jewish ouvidores (magistrates) which administrated justice to their fellow Jews.

In each district the Jews were organizes in communities – named the comunas – each having its own arrabi (rabbi) and its officers, both for synagogue service and for their own prisons, hospitals, etc.

Upon all the rabbis and ouvidores was the Arrabi-Mor (the Chief Rabbi), a high officer, appointed by the King, and bearing his own seal. He had the supreme authority over the Jews in the whole kingdom.

Apart from administrating justice the Arrabi-Mor was also in charge of protecting the Jews under his jurisdiction against local hostility.

The Arrabi-Mor used his own influence with the king in many circumstances, an important weapon since the legal situation was defined by the exclusive will of the monarch who solved all problems according to the balance of power and not according to the law.

When the Jews received the king’s protection, it was by grace and mercy and not by right.

They had to live in separate quarters, called the Judiarias, from where they could not be out after the hour of the Ave Maria, the Hail Mary.

The special legislation for the Jews included such measures as to prevent contact (conversação) between Jews and Christians.

Obviously some of the laws were so impractical that the kings had to grant, from time to time, both collective and individual exceptions.

All those exceptional grants are recorded in the Chancelarias, the books of records of the Kings of Portugal, kept at the National Archives (ANTT) in Lisbon. Those are important sources for research on the Jewish life in Portugal.

Because of the importance of the Jews to the Kingdom, both professionally and as counselors and ministers to the Kings, their situation has known ups and downs, but was bearable until the end of the 15th century.

In 1492 there were approximately 80,000 Jews living in Portugal. This was also the time when the Portuguese seamen were most busy in discovering new lands and new paths in the sea.

The Portuguese Jews were very much involved not only in the scientific element of the discoveries, but also in the financing of the same.

This was also the year when the Jews from Spain have been put in face of the dilemma: convert or leave Spain.

There were about 300,000 thousand Jews in Spain. There are no exact figures, but it has been estimated lately by some historians, that one third managed to migrate to other countries, less than one third converted, and about 120,000 came across the frontier to Portugal.

This has been negotiated with the Portuguese King, John II. They had to pay a tax per head and they were to leave Portugal in one-year time or become slaves to the king.

At that time most of the Peninsular Jews believed that there were signs that the Messiah was about to come and they would be liberated. This might have been the reason why so many preferred not to go further than Portugal.

Most of them could not leave the country in one year – eventually did not want either – and they became slaves to the King of Portugal. John II took some cruel measures against them. One of those was sending 2000 Jews children to the island of S. Tome, in Africa, then not inhabited, and was popularly known as the island of the crocodiles. We don’t know for sure what was the fate of those children.

After the death of John II, the new king, Manuel the first, used of mercy with the Jews, canceled the situation of slavery and, as a matter of fact, used their skills and money for the expansion of the discoveries.

In 1496, thou, the King contracted his own marriage with the eldest daughter of Fernando and Isabella. The catholic sovereigns put as a condition for the marriage that the kingdom should be clean of Jews.

Manuel hoped, with this marriage, to inherit the throne of Spain and therefore unit the all Peninsula.

He accepted the challenge, but conceived a Machiavellian plan to supposedly expel the Jews and yet keep them in his Kingdom.

On the 5th of December 1496 he issued a decree that all the Jews of Portugal must convert to Christianity or leave the country until October 1497.

For those wishing to leave he promised to provide ships.

Most of the Jews decided to leave… but the ships were not provided. During the ten months that followed the King tried all possible trickeries to compel them to convert. One of those was again taking from then the children younger than 14 years and have them be raised by Catholic families in their religion.

In May 1497 he issued a new decree granting to all Jews that converted a period of 10 years, during which no inquires would be made to their religious practices at home, so that they might adapt themselves at pace to the new religion.

This decree is very important for two reasons – one for it was later extended to 50 years during which there was no Inquisition in Portugal – and second because it gave the Jews the opportunity to organize themselves in secrecy to continue their religious practices.

Eventually this was the main cause for the persistence of so many Catholic communities in Portugal, that kept secretive Jewish rituals during five centuries – half a millenium, an amazing phenomena in the history of the Jews in this country.

As the time approached, the Jews demanded from the King to keep his promise – to provide them with ships in order to escape the conversion.

They were ordered to converge to Lisbon, were they received temporary shelter in the Palace of Estaos, a kind of hostel, located then in the Rossio square, where the National Theater of D. Maria stands today.

From there, in October 1497, they were dragged to a nearby church and forced to take the water of the baptism. The same thing happened all over the country.

All religious books in Hebrew were burned and the synagogues became Christian churches.

From there on, they become Christians who had to show ostensibly that they went to the churches and they kept all the commandments of the Christian faith. At home, however, most of them continued to follow the religion of Moses.

There were several instances when they were persecuted because of this double existence, in one of which, during Passover of 1506, more than 2,000 Jews, or New-Christians as they were called then, were slaughtered in the streets of this city.

In 1538 the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition was established in Portugal, obviously not against the Jews, because there were no more Jews as such in Portugal, but against the heretics New-Christians.

The population was encouraged to denounce any suspicion of Judaism. There was a list of such sins, and it would be enough to abstain from eating pork, or changing his own shirt on Friday, or even washing oneself too many times, to have all one’s belongings seized, to be put in prison, being tortured, and eventually, if the person would not show signs of sincere repentance, he would be burned during a most impressive ceremony called the auto-de-fé , an act of faith.

The same National Archives, mentioned above, the Arquivo nacional da Torre do Tombo, hold circa 44,000 well documented files from the proceeds of the Inquisition, including detailed description of the tortures and of the auto-de-fé.

Jews – as such – were not allowed to live in this country until the beginning of the 19th century.
It is said that at that time prince Pedro of Portugal visited the British colony of Gibraltar. He was surprised to be introduced to people, mainly businessmen, whose names sounded very Portuguese to him, such as Cardoso and Pinto.

They explained to him that those were Jews families that had been able to escape from Portugal after the forced conversion.

When the prince asked why they did not return then to Portugal he was told that the law in Portugal had banned the Jews from living there.

Five years later, when the prince became King Pedro I, he officially invited the Jews from Gibraltar and Morocco to come and live in Portugal.

About 80 families came and established themselves in Lisbon, the Algarve and some of the Portuguese colonies. However the decree that forbid the Jews to live in Portugal was not abolished until the end of the century. Until then, the Jews were only tolerated.

In 1910, with the abolition of the monarchy and the advent of the republican regime, the religion was separated from the state and all religions have been permitted since.

As explained, the first settlers of this modern Jewish community were Sephardis from Gibraltar and Morocco.

The first Ashkenazi, or Central European, Jews arrived in the second decade of this century.

The first was Wolf Terlo, an expert in the wine industry from Russia, and after him, Samuel Schwarz, a mine engineer from Lodz, in Poland. Both came for professional reasons.

Samuel Schwarz was the first person to contact the secret Jews – New-Christians or Marranos – in the north of Portugal.

After them, there was a wave of immigration from Europe. Mostly persons that hoped to reach the Americas from here and found that they could make a living in Portugal.

During the war tens of thousands of Jews refugees passed through Portugal.

The dictator, Salazar, himself of supposed Jewish ancestry, had decided to admit any Jewish refugees into Portugal.

Pursuing a precarious line of political neutrality between his fascist counterparts in Germany, Italy and Spain, and the centuries old alliance between Portugal and Britain, he predicted that if the Jewish refugees who flew ahead of the German Army to the South of France, would cross the Pyrenees, the Gestapo would follow them.

This would put an end to Portugal’s neutrality.

However, a Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, south of France, defied the specific orders of Salazar, and granted Portuguese visas to circa 40 thousand refugees.

Mendes was brought back to Portugal, punished and discharged from his diplomatic carrier. In spite of all the possible financial help from the Jewish community of Lisbon, Consul Sousa Mendes died in poverty and misery.

Today the Lisbon Jewish Community has about 500 member, half of which are really temporary residents on business or professional ground.

One crypto-Jewish community, in Belmonte, has returned openly to mainstream Judaism and a synagogue has been built in the village.

A small group of crypto-Jews residing in Lisbon, have either joined to Jewish community there or created a minyan of their own at the premises of an Ashkenazi shtibl that subsisted from the time of the ^"of their ow

In Oporto, the Community created by Captain Barros Basto – to learn more about him click here– has known ups and downs. Today it has about 40 members, which pray at the synagogue erected by the efforts of the unfortunate captain.

Temporary Jewish residents of the Algarve have also created a social organization at Portimao.

Some associations of people who consider themselves as "anusim" and search their path to mainstream Judaism have recently been created in Lisbon, Oporto and Guarda.

Inacio Steinhardt - June 2000

John Travolta feat. Olivia Newton John-Summer Nights

Bee Gees - I Started A Joke

I STARTED A JOKE

I started a joke, which started the whole world crying,
But I didnt see that the joke was on me, oh no.

I started to cry, which started the whole world laughing,
Oh, if Id only seen that the joke was on me.

I looked at the skies, running my hands over my eyes,
And I fell out of bed, hurting my head from things that Id said.

Til I finally died, which started the whole world living,
Oh, if Id only seen that the joke was on me.

I looked at the skies, running my hands over my eyes,
And I fell out of bed, hurting my head from things that Id said.

til I finally died, which started the whole world living,
Oh, if Id only seen that the joke was one me.

Bee Gees - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (live, 1997)

HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART

I can think of younger days when living for my life
Was everything a man could want to do.
I could never see tomorrow, but I was never told about the sorrow.

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend a this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again.

I can still feel the breeze that rustles through the trees
And misty memories of days gone by
We could never see tomorrow, noone said a word about the sorrow.

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again.

THE BEE GEES - WORDS

WORDS

Smile an everlasting smile, a smile can bring you
Near to me.
Dont ever let me find you down, cause that would
Bring a tear to me.
This world has lost its glory, lets start a brand
New story now, my love.
Right now, therell be no other time and I can show
You how, my love.

Talk in everlasting words, and dedicate them all to
Me.
And I will give you all my life, Im here if you
Should call to me.
You think that I dont even mean a single word i
Say.
Its only words, and words are all I have, to take
Your heart away

Bee Gees - Massachusetts

MASSACHUSETTS

Feel Im goin back to massachusetts,
Somethings telling me I must go home.
And the lights all went out in massachusetts
The day I left her standing on her own.

Tried to hitch a ride to san francisco,
Gotta do the things I wanna do.
And the lights all went out in massachusetts
They brought me back to see my way with you.

Talk about the life in massachusetts,
Speak about the people I have seen,
And the lights all went out in massachusetts
And massachusetts is one place I have seen.

I will remember massachusetts...

Esser Agaroth: Ahmed's Bunker

Esser Agaroth: Ahmed's Bunker

The Sheila Variations: RIP, Shelley Winters

The Sheila Variations: RIP, Shelley Winters
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