Showing Results 1 - 10 of 40
Born to converso parents and baptized as Manoel Dias Soeiro, Menasseh Ben Israel moved as a boy with his family to Amsterdam, where they reverted openly to Judaism. In 1626, he established the first…
This belled gilt-silver Torah finial topped with a crown was made in Amsterdam and has been attributed to master silversmith Pieter van Hoven, who lived near the Jewish quarter and is best known for…
The Israelites were fertile, wa-yishreṣu wa-yirbu wa-ya‘aṣmu very greatly, so that the land was full with them (Exod. 1:7).
“R. Isaac said, Whoever takes pleasure in an optional…
And it came to pass, when they gathered to go, joyous in their departure and glad to run the course, the great God raised His voice, and the sound of thunder swiftly turned silent. All gave ear to the…
Shabbetai Tzvi was the central figure of a messianic movement that swept the Jewish world in the mid-seventeenth century. Born in Izmir (Smyrna), as an adolescent Shabbetai Tzvi embarked on the study…
Simcha (Gimar) Belmonte (born Vaz; 1582–1643) was the wife of Jakob Israel Belmonte (a poet, writer, and trader). She and her husband were among the founders of the Jewish community in Amsterdam after…
The rhymed Hebrew inscription below the picture of Yeḥiel Mikhel ben Nathan of Lublin notes that he had formerly been a cantor in Lublin and is presently serving in that role in Amsterdam, in 1699…
Jacob Teixeira was born in Amsterdam in 1724 to Judith Nunes Henriques (b. Amsterdam, 1703–1732) and Joseph Teixeira (b. London, 1699–1775), who descended from the wealthy Portuguese Teixeira family…
Reason and Righteousness in the Field.Reason:Righteousness, beloved of my soul, may your heart be of good courage. Gird yourself with vigor, for, the further salvation seems to be from…
Where will you camp, O my ibex, for whom I yearn?
Where will you drip the droplets of your wine and your dew—O formidable one?
If you bring up your beauty to heaven on high,
You will dim…