A team of researchers from C2TN, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Universidade de Évora and José de Mello in the frame of the ERIHS.PT Platform, was in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, to characterize a set of Sepher Torah and other documents from the Hebrew Museum Sahar Hassamaim and the Public Library and Archive Regional.
Using portable equipment from the MOLAB-PT infrastructure, the study encompasses the characterization of the parchment (origin of the skin), the inks used (mostly iron-gall inks) and the evaluation of the state of conservation. The results obtained will be helpful to contextualize these Sepher Torahs and, in the future, to ascertain the origin of similar objects.
The Torahs were brought by Sephardic Jewish families who migrated from Morocco to the Azores at the beginning of the XIX century. This Jewish community settled in Azores played a relevant role in the Islands’ commercial, artistic, and religious development. These families founded the Sahar Hassamain-Synagogue in 1836, and nowadays it is the oldest of Portugal’s synagogues built after the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian peninsula.