Who We Are
Jew Where grew out of the work of the Centro Cultural Judaico Rua da Judiaria & JCC Lisboa, a cultural institution based in Lisbon’s old Jewish Quarter of Alfama.
Since 2019, the Center has been dedicated to preserving, promoting and sharing Jewish heritage in Portugal, with special attention to Sephardic memory, material culture, education, art and the public transmission of knowledge.
Our work brings together historical research, archaeology, cultural programming, guided tours, exhibitions, memory projects and digital initiatives. Among our projects are heritage preservation actions, educational content, cultural activities, the promotion of contemporary Jewish art and the coordination of the Stolpersteine project in Portugal.
Jew Where is a natural extension of this path. The platform was created to map and tell the story of Jewish places in Portugal and around the world, bringing together historical information, cultural context, local memory and accessible public interpretation.
More than a map, Jew Where is a tool for discovery. Its purpose is to help visitors, researchers, communities, students and curious minds understand that Jewish presence is not found only in major monuments or archives, but also in streets, forgotten names, material and immaterial traces, and in the less visible layers of cities.
Luciano Waldman
Luciano Waldman is an archaeologist, historian, founder of the Centro Cultural Judaico Rua da Judiaria & JCC Lisboa, and the creator of Jew Where.
His work focuses on the preservation and interpretation of Jewish-Portuguese heritage, with special attention to material culture, archaeology, Sephardic memory and the public transmission of Jewish history. From Rua da Judiaria, in Alfama, he has developed cultural, educational and memorial projects that seek to restore visibility to a presence that has often been fragmented, erased or misunderstood.
Drawing from his direct experience in the field, Luciano conceived Jew Where as a platform capable of bringing together places, stories, documents and traces of Jewish presence in Portugal and around the world. The idea comes from the conviction that this memory must be preserved with rigor, organized with responsibility and made accessible to the public.
Israel Lima
Israel Lima holds a degree in Social Communication, with a focus on radio and television, and is part of the team at the Centro Cultural Judaico Rua da Judiaria & JCC Lisboa.
At Jew Where, Israel was responsible for turning the idea into a concrete project. His work includes communication, production, digital development, editorial organization, operational coordination and content creation.
His work helped give the platform its form, structure and language, bringing research, heritage and memory into a clear, accessible and visually strong digital experience. His background in communication contributes to making Jew Where not only an archive of information, but a living tool for discovery, interpretation and public connection.
Why We Do This Work
This project comes from the need to confront forgetfulness and indifference toward Jewish presence in Portugal and around the world.
For centuries, Jewish history has often been silenced, fragmented or reduced to footnotes. Many places lost their names, many stories were left without faces, and many traces, both material and immaterial, still remain without the recognition they deserve.
Our work is to connect documents to places, names to people, memory to territory and heritage to life.
On Rua da Judiaria, in Lisbon, we learned that Jewish history also lives in the details: in a street, an inscription, a tradition, an excavation, a family memory or an almost invisible absence.
Jew Where exists to give context to these places and to make accessible a memory that continues to be part of history, landscape and Jewish life.