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March 1, 2009 in Library Corner
By Robin Jacobson
At Purim, we celebrate the heroism of the young Queen Esther who saved the Jewish people of Persia. Less famous than Queen Esther, but equally brave and clever, Dona Gracia Nasi was a Jewish heroine of the 16th century who also saved her people.
A shrewd businesswoman and adroit negotiator, Dona Gracia rescued thousands of Conversos from the Inquisition. Conversos (also called Marranos) were Spanish and Portuguese Jews who converted to Christianity, often under duress. The Inquisition targeted these converts for terror, torture, and death, on the charge that they were practicing Judaism in secret. In A Woman Who Defied Kings, biographer Andree Aelion Brooks paints a detailed portrait of Dona Gracia and the perilous times in which she lived. Read Brooks’ book in combination with Cecil Roth’s 1948 Dona Gracia of the House of Nasi, for a good introduction to a remarkable woman.
Gracia Nasi (1510-1569) was born in Lisbon, Portugal. Her family was among the thousands of Jewish refugees who fled to Portugal from Spain when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the Jews in 1492. Portugal offered a safe haven for the Spanish Jews in return for large sums of money.
But by 1497, a new Portuguese king, Manuel, eager to marry Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter, agreed to the Spanish monarchs’ demands to rid Portugal of Jews. He was reluctant to expel the Jews, however, because their commercial skills were important to Portuguese expansion and exploration. So Manuel devised a cruel plan that would enable him to retain the Jews and yet satisfy Ferdinand and Isabella. According to the traditional account, King Manuel ordered his soldiers to herd 20,000 Jews into a large city plaza in Lisbon and hold them there in the roasting sun without food or water for three days. Then the Jews were escorted (or dragged) to the baptismal font.
In 1536, Dona Gracia became a rich young widow at the death of her husband, Francisco Mendes, the head of an international banking house. To escape Portuguese designs on her wealth, Dona Gracia moved to Antwerp where she worked closely with her brother-in-law, Diogo Mendes. After Diogo died, Dona Gracia inherited the management of the Mendes commercial empire. Hounded by the Inquisition and European rulers attempting to confiscate her fortune, she traveled from Antwerp to Venice and Ferrara and back to Venice. Her own sister denounced her as a secret Jew. At last, in 1553, Dona Gracia reached Constantinople where, for the first time, she was able to live openly as a Jew.
Dona Gracia used her fortune as a lever to free her fellow conversos from the Inquisition. She bribed popes and princes and ran an international underground network that spirited Conversos from Europe to the Ottoman Empire. To help the Conversos in the Ottoman Empire regain their lost heritage, she supported the building of synagogues and yeshivas and the publication of Jewish texts. For this, and for the food, money, and supplies she gave to refugees as they plodded wearily through Europe, the Conversos revered her as their queen, calling her the “crowned lady.” They compared her to “the Lord at the time of the Exodus from Egypt” for her role in delivering Jews to freedom.
