Jewish Cultural Center Rua da Judiaria & JCC Lisbon was founded in 2019 by Luciano Waldman in Lisbon’s old Judiaria of Alfama. It was created to restore visibility to Rua da Judiaria and to establish an active institution dedicated to Jewish heritage, research, education, and public culture.

Rua da Judiaria was central to the project from the start. The street preserves, in its own name, a direct urban trace of medieval Jewish Lisbon. The center was therefore established in a place where Jewish memory had survived in the toponymy and the urban fabric, but where there was still no living Jewish institution focused on interpretation, education, and continuity.

First Phase of the Center

In its first years, the center focused on the preservation and promotion of Jewish-Portuguese heritage. Its work included historical interpretation, guided visits, cultural programming, exhibitions, lectures, and activities related to Sephardic history and memory. Over time, it became a meeting point for visitors, researchers, artists, diplomats, schools, local residents, and Jewish communities.

This phase defined the institution’s identity. Rather than treating Jewish history as a decorative layer of the city, the center used Rua da Judiaria as a starting point for a broader reading of Jewish Lisbon, from the medieval quarters to forced conversion, the Inquisition, and the modern return of Jewish communal life.

Expansion of the Project

As the project developed, its scope expanded beyond Alfama. Rua da Judiaria became the base for a wider institutional vision linking heritage preservation, Jewish education, contemporary culture, environmental awareness, and civic memory. Within that framework, the center developed initiatives such as intercultural dialogue meetings, exhibitions, Tu BiShvat activities, Reverse Tashlich, and the Daffodil Project.

The creation of JCC Lisbon added a contemporary communal dimension to this work. It reinforced the idea that Jewish heritage in Portugal should not be reduced to ruins or absence. Jewish life is also educational, ethical, communal, and present.

Stolpersteine Portugal

A major step in the institution’s development was the creation and coordination of Stolpersteine Portugal. Through the work of Luciano Waldman and the Centro Cultural Rua da Judiaria, Portugal joined one of Europe’s most important decentralized Holocaust remembrance projects. This required historical research, biographical reconstruction, municipal coordination, and public commemoration, expanding the institution’s mission from local heritage to national memory.

In 2026, that work gained new visibility with the installation of Portugal’s first Stolperschwelle in Lisbon, dedicated to refugees who passed through the city while fleeing Nazism. This confirmed the institution’s ability to connect historical research with public memory in concrete form.

Jew Where

Today, Jewish Cultural Center Rua da Judiaria & JCC Lisbon is entering a new phase through Jew Where, a digital platform dedicated to mapping and interpreting Jewish heritage in Lisbon, Portugal, and beyond. What began in 2019 in one historic street has expanded into a broader project of heritage interpretation, remembrance, cultural programming, community-building, and digital mapping.