Livro de ascamot (Book of Regulations): On a Banned Book

Joseph Athias was a merchant and book printer in Amsterdam. A Jewish refugee from Portugal, he lived for a while in Germany before settling in Amsterdam around 1654. There, he established a Hebrew print shop, where he published some 450 books. In 1661, he was the first Jewish printer to be accepted as a member of the Amsterdam Bookprinters Guild. He is best known for his edition of the Hebrew Bible, the first to use Arabic numerals for numbering chapters and verses, which he prepared in consultation with Christian scholars from the University of Utrecht. He also produced Christian Bibles for the non-Jewish market.

Nothing is known about the early years of Abraham bar Jacob, who as a young Christian pastor left the Rhine region and settled in Amsterdam. There, he took the name Abraham bar Jacob after converting to Judaism. Bar Jacob became a well-known and influential engraver, printmaker, and artist. His works include frontispieces and engravings for books printed by Amsterdam printing houses, an amulet for women in childbirth, and possibly an engraved portrait of Rabbi Isaac Aboab. Among his most famous works is the Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695, which includes a detailed map of the Holy Land. In his later works, bar Jacob’s signature has been obliterated or concealed, possibly because he was a convert.

Toward the end of the sixteenth century, as the Netherlands was engaged in a war to free itself from Spanish rule, New Christians began to settle in Amsterdam. There they found religious freedom and personal safety. The first to arrive did not live openly as Jews, but a group that settled in Amsterdam in 1602 conducted religious services in a private home. Initially, the legal status of the Jews was unclear; the Reform Church opposed their residence in the city, while civic authorities favored it. The first congregation, Beth Jacob, was founded in 1607. Another was founded the following year, and together the two established charitable foundations. Amsterdam became a center of Jewish learning and intellectual life, and its Talmud Torah (religious school) gained a reputation for excellence. Likewise, many works intended for Sephardic communities were written and published in the city. Many Spanish and Portuguese Jews engaged in international trade, tobacco production, printing, and the diamond industry.