Escola de Inocentes Raparigas. Isaac da Costa Vila Real e o seu projecto para o ensino das órfãs da Nação (Londres, 1730)

The Escola de Inocentes Raparigas (School for Innocent Girls), later called “Villareal School”, was a unique welfare and educational project within the Sephardi congregation of London. Aiming to teach Jewish orphan and poor girls, this project was designed by José (alias Isaac) da Costa Vila Real, a Portuguese Jew living in London since 1726. It emerges at a moment when the congregation was facing the highest migratory wave from Iberia ever recorded, which caused the demographic growth of the community but also the deepening of poverty amongst part of its members. This work analyses the circumstances that led to the foundation of the Villareal School, as well as its first century of working, based on its regulations, minutes and accounts from 1730 to 1830.