“Your history is our history,” said the President before a private reception of Holocaust survivors saved by Aristides de Sousa Mendes and board members of ASF
NYC SCENE THE OTHER DAY
The American Sephardi Federation hosted the President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the Center for Jewish History in Chelsea for a tour of Portugal, The Last Hope: Sousa Mendes’ Visas for Freedom. “Your history is our history,” said the President before a private reception of Holocaust survivors saved by Aristides de Sousa Mendes and board members of ASF, American Jewish Committee, B’Nai Brith, and Sephardic Home for the Aged Foundation, as he announced his intention to confer on Mendes the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty. The exhibit honors Mendes, who, as the Portuguese Consul General at Bordeaux during the Holocaust, saved Salvador Dali, the authors of Curious George, and thousands of people, many of them Jews, by issuing visas against the orders of his government. 50 years ago Mendes was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad VaShem.