From June 15th to June 18th, in Bargança (Portugal),will take place the International Congress "Identity and Sephardi Memory: History and Present time".

The more than two millennia of Jewish presence in the nowadays Portuguese territory, have marked in a indelible way History and Culture, and deep down the identity and the ideas. The Tras-os-Montes region, possesses a set of characteristics favorable to the development of a cultural diversity affirmation strategy grounded in an immaterial patrimony of a Jewish-Christian past still present. The Sephardi patrimonial and identity dynamization may be one fundamental pole in the recreation of connections from Bragança to the world's more developed poles. Moreover, the development of a solid strategy in the contact with Jewish families possibly originating from Bragança may be, undoubtedly, a very effective way of captivate investment and to place the city in the map of the priorities, not only touristic ones.

So, the important scientific contribution developed by the Museu Abade Baçal, and in particular the Centro de Interpretaçao da Cultura Sefardita do Nordeste transmontano, and Bragança Sefardita - Memorial e Centro de Documentaçao, should be seen only as the beginning of the rediscovery and acknowledgement of a culture process, that helped forge the Tras-os-Montes identity.

With this event, the organizers pursue 4 main objectives:

To raise awareness to the Jewish Religious Cultural Tourism (national and international); To bring to Bragança internationally renowned figures, Jewish and Sephardic, in a connection with Spain: artists, investigators, historians, investors, Sephardic descendants; To make an impact in the specialized media and generalist media on the importance of the Sephardi Culture, in a recent past, and in our near future, and (re) place Bragança in the International Routes, through a new centrality.

Full programme: http://terrasdesefarad.com/