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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…
To celebrate the opening of the Esnoga synagogue in Amsterdam in 1675, the Sephardic community commissioned the distinguished artist Romeyn de Hooghe to depict its dedication. In 1670, Amsterdam’s…
Statesman, merchant, and communal leader Baron Manuel (Isaac Nunes) de Belmonte (d. 1704) was the Spanish agent general in the Netherlands from 1664 and resident (consul) of the King of Spain from…
This etching depicts a body being brought for burial in the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk, the oldest Jewish cemetery (est. 1614) in the Netherlands, located on the Amstel River.
These four etchings were made by Rembrandt van Rijn for Menasseh Ben Israel’s book, Piedra Gloriosa (Glorious Stone), a messianic treatise. Clockwise from upper left, they illustrate the biblical…
The press of Solomon Proops was one of the most prolific and well-known Hebrew presses in eighteenth-century Europe. The printer’s mark used by Proops (which does not appear on all his works) depicts…
It is known that one who lacks books lacks knowledge, for a man’s knowledge is limited in its reach by the reach of his books; and there is no artist without tools. Many new books came…
This engraving portrays Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, a rabbi, kabbalist, and preacher, born in Castro Daire, Portugal, to a family of New Christians. He arrived in Amsterdam with his family at the age of…
Nathan of Gaza (also known as Nathan Benjamin ben Elisha Ḥayim ha-Levi Ashkenazi) was born in Jerusalem and moved to Gaza in around 1663. The son of a respected religious scholar, he became a scholar…
This Haggadah from Amsterdam was printed by Joseph ben Abraham Athias and is adorned with elaborate copper etchings by artist Abraham Bar Jacob. It was the first Haggadah to include these sorts of…
