Jewish Life of the Month: Menasseh ben Israel
Rebecca Keys
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
By Steven Nadler
Published August 21, 2018
312 pages
“Truly excellent” —Jonathan Israel
An illuminating biography of the great Amsterdam rabbi and celebrated popularizer of Judaism in the seventeenth century
Menasseh ben Israel (1604–1657) was among the most accomplished and cosmopolitan rabbis of his time, and a pivotal intellectual figure in early modern Jewish history. He was one of the three rabbis of the “Portuguese Nation” in Amsterdam, a community that quickly earned renown worldwide for its mercantile and scholarly vitality.
Born in Lisbon, Menasseh and his family were forcibly converted to Catholicism but suspected of insincerity in their new faith. To avoid the horrors of the Inquisition, they fled first to southwestern France, and then to Amsterdam, where they finally settled. Menasseh played an important role during the formative decades of one of the most vital Jewish communities of early modern Europe, and was influential through his extraordinary work as a printer and his efforts on behalf of the readmission of Jews to England. In this lively biography, Steven Nadler provides a fresh perspective on this seminal figure.
Menasseh ben Israel
Dates
1604-1657
Impact
A pivotal intellectual figure in early modern Jewish history, Menasseh ben Israel was a rabbi and founder of the first Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam. His most famous student was Baruch Spinoza.
Famous Quote
"Now, as if in total neglect of myself, I am engaged in trade; which is not only difficult and full of trouble, but also costs me a good deal of time that I would otherwise devote to my studies. But what else am I to do? I have neither the wealth of Croesus nor the soul of Thersites."