EnglishThe Jewish community in Porto announced on 13th March that it is suspending its activities until further notice and is currently ceasing to grant approvals for applications for Portuguese citizenship. This happened after the arrest on the 10th of March of the chief rabbi of the Jewish community in Porto, Daniel Litvak, amid suspicions that he helped the Israeli oligarch Roman Abramovich obtain Portuguese citizenship illegally. Litvak was released from custody after a few hours and indictments were filed against him for accepting bribes, money laundering, and tax evasion, after significant sums of money originating in question were discovered in his bank account. A police search was also conducted at the offices of the Jewish community in Porto and with other members.
Itay Mor, president of the movement “Over the Rainbow Portugal” commented about the events to the Israeli newspapers and websites Israel Today and Maariv:
“This is a serious, concerning incident and there is no doubt that members of the community have difficult days ahead.
However, I believe that in light of the welcome work that they’ve done in the past seven years and the Portuguese Jewish community’s huge contribution, things will calm down and activity will begin again. Because of these developments, we’ve received a wave of inquiries about help for people in the middle of getting Portuguese citizenship and also inquiries from people who rejected the move and now want to begin in and implement their right to citizenship as soon as possible.
It’s important to remember that the Jewish community board in Lisbon also issues confirmation of ancestry for the citizenship application process”.
Read here the full article from Israel today
and the attached article from Maariv
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