Article in Jewish Press highlights Sousa Mendes's heroic action

An article by Shoshana Matzner Bekerman published on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 in www.jewishpress.com highlights the extraordinary heroism of Sousa Mendes in 1940.
The third of three articles on The Jews Of Portugal, the latest article describes Aristides de Sousa Mendes: A Moral Model For The World .

The earlier article reviewed the history of the Jews in Portugal, from the tragedy of the Inquisition to the importance of Portugal as one of the main escape routes for Jews fleeing the Nazis during the Holocaust of World War II.

New Yorkers became familiar with that aspect of Portuguese history on April 6, 2005, when “Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese Righteous Gentile who saved the lives of an estimated 30,000 Jews and others during the Nazi Holocaust,” was honored at the Museum of Jewish Heritage − A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

But the story of Sousa Mendes was first published in the Luso Americano in 1988, when the Sousa Mendes family visited the US be honored at a special event at the Portuguese Embassy in Washington and stayed to share their story with a group of over 300 people from the Portuguese and Jewish communities in Newark, New Jersey.