The weather was gray and gloomy in Lisbon two months ago, and it perfectly matched my mood. As I walked by the elegant and popular Rossio Square, I felt as though someone had stuck a dagger in my heart. I remembered a searing and beautiful mystical murder mystery I had read a few years ago called The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon.
In it, author Richard Zilmer wrote about a littleknown incident that happened in Lisbon in 1506. Spurred on by fanatical priests, locals stormed into the narrow warren of cobblestone streets in the Alfama district, which was inhabited by Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity. They hauled out these secret Jews and burned between 2,000 and 4,000 of them at the stake over the course of a few days – in the Rossio."
