Pumpidisa – In Portugal With Children of Marranos

Perhaps this was the largest and most public kept Shabbos in over 500 years -since the Inquisition- in the mountainside village of Belmote, Portugal.
A group of 80 Frum Yidden -on a mission to spread light, faith and happiness, traveled to Belmonte to inspire and get inspired by these Holy Hidden Jews. Amongst those present on this journey were: Beri Weber, Mezamrim, Meilech Kohn, Yoeli Lebowitz, Pumpidisa, lead singer of Zusha, Toshe Rebbe Zt"l's Gabbai and many more prominent Yidden of various walks of life.
Above footage shows the Motzei Shabbos Melave Malke Kumzitz we had with the locals. The song sang is about how we are all children of Avrohom, Yitzchok, and Yaakov. We are all Neshamos and no matter how we were scattered from the Galus, we shall sing Hashem's Praises.
The energy in the room was of the highest moments for many. The Kiddush Hashem, the tears of the local shed out of joy over Shabbos...
We walked through the streets of that Old City after Kabalas Shabbos singing. We slide our fingers in to the very crosses etched into the stone of the Jewish homes by the inquisition 500 years ago. It is said that the Jews would keep their Mezuzah Scrolls in their pockets, and when they would enter their home, they would have it in their hand and put it in those crosses carved in to the doorposts of their home -pretending to kiss the cross, but kissing the Mezuzah scroll.
The Marranos that have been living in Belmonte are sometimes referred to as the "Belmonte Jews." They are a community that has survived in secrecy for hundreds of years by maintaining a tradition of endogamy and by hiding all the external signs of their faith.
The community in the municipality of Belmonte, Portugal, goes back to the 12th century and they were only discovered in 1917 by a Polish Jewish mining engineer named Samuel Schwarz. Some of them resumed the public practice of Judaism in the 1970s, and opened a synagogue, Bet Eliahu, in 1996.
We prefer to call them Anusim אֲנוּסִים‎ (the forced ones -who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will) as opposed to Marranos (in this context means "swine" or "pig").
!מי כעמך ישראל
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