MANASSEH BEN ISRAEL (1647)

Major Hebraic scholar of the Jewish community of Amsterdam.

Born into a family of Marranos (Jews of Spain and Portugal who publicly accepted Christianity but privately practiced Judaism), he was baptized Manoel Dias Soeiro. After his father appeared as a penitent in an auto da fé, the family escaped to Amsterdam where Jewish settlement was officially authorized.

Manasseh a brilliant theological student became rabbi of a Portuguese Jewish congregation in Amsterdam in 1622. He founded that city´s first Hebrew printing press in 1626 publishing his works in Hebrew, Latin, Spanish and Portuguese.

Among his writings Conciliador (3 vol., 1632-51) was an attempt to reconcile discordant passages in the Bible; it established his reputation as a scholar in the Jewish and Christian communities.

Manasseh maintained friedships with Hugo Grotius and Rembrandt, corresponded with Queen Christina od Sweden and was an early teacher of Spinoza.

Manasseh believed that the Messiah would return to lead the Jews to the Holy Land only after their dispersal throughout the world was achieved.

He considered emigrating to Brazil in 1640 and reported the alleged discovery in South America of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel in Esperança de Israel (Hope of Israel).

To support the settlement of Jews in Protestant England where their presence had been officially banned since 1290 he dedicated the Latin edition of this work (1650) to the English Parliament. Manasseh continued to plead for the formal recognition of Jewish settlement in England and appeared before Oliver Cromwell in London in 1655 to argue his cause. While in England he wrote Vindiciae Judaeorum (1656, Vindication of the Jews) in answer to contemporary attacks on Jews including William Prynne´s Short Demurrer.

Manasseh returned to Holland inn 1657 believing his mission to have been unsuccessful.

His efforts, however, initiated unofficial acceptance of Jewish settlement and led to the granting of an official charter of protection to the Jews of England inn 1664, after his death.