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MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL (c.1604–1657)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 112 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MENASSEH See also:

BEN See also:ISRAEL (c.1604–1657) , Jewish See also:leader, was See also:born in See also:Lisbon about 1604, and was brought up in See also:Amsterdam. His See also:family had suffered under the See also:Inquisition, but found an See also:asylum first in La Rochelle and later in See also:Holland. Here Menasseh See also:rose to See also:eminence See also:riot only as a See also:rabbi and an author, but also as a printer. He established the first See also:Hebrew See also:press in Holland. One of his earliest See also:works El Conciliador won immediate reputation. It was an See also:attempt at reconciliation between apparent discrepancies in various parts of the Old Testament. Among his correspondents were See also:Vossius, See also:Grotius and See also:Huet. In 1638 he decided to See also:settle in See also:Brazil, as he still found it difficult to See also:pro-vide in Amsterdam for his wife and family, but this step was rendered unnecessary by his See also:appointment to See also:direct a See also:college founded by the Pereiras. In 1644 Menasseh met See also:Antonio de Montesinos, who persuaded him that the See also:North-See also:American See also:Indians were the descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel. This supposed See also:discovery gave a new impulse to Menasseh's Messianic hopes. But he was convinced that the Messianic See also:age needed as its certain precursor the See also:settlement of See also:Jews in all parts of the known See also:world. Filled with this See also:idea, he turned his See also:attention to See also:England, whence the Jews had been expelled since 1290.

He found much See also:

Christian support in England. During the See also:Commonwealth the question of the readmission of the Jews was often mooted under the growing See also:desire for religious See also:liberty. Besides this, Messianic and other mystic hopes were current in England. In 165o appeared an See also:English version of the See also:Hope of Israel, a See also:tract which deeply impressed public See also:opinion. See also:Cromwell had been moved to sympathy with the Jewish cause partly by his tolerant leanings, but chiefly because he foresaw the importance for English See also:commerce of the presence of the Jewish See also:merchant princes, some of whom had already found their way to See also:London. At this juncture Jews received full rights in the See also:colony of Surinam, which had been English since 1650. In 1655 Menasseh arrived in London. It was during his See also:absence that the Amsterdam Rabbis excommunicated See also:Spinoza, a See also:catastrophe which would probably have been avoided had Menasseh—Spinoza's teacher—been on the spot. One of his first acts on reaching London was the issue of his Humble Addresses to the See also:Lord See also:Protector, but its effect was weakened by the issue of See also:Prynne's able but unfair See also:Short See also:Demurrer. Cromwell summoned the See also:Whitehall See also:Conference in See also:December of the same See also:year. To this conference were summoned some of the most notable statesmen, lawyers and theologians of the See also:day. The See also:chief See also:practical result was the See also:declaration of See also:Judges Glynne and See also:Steele that " there was no See also:law which forbade the Jews' return to England." Though, therefore, nothing was done to regularize the position of the Jews, the See also:door was opened to their See also:gradual return.

Hence See also:

John See also:Evelyn was able to enter in his See also:Diary under the date Dec.- 14, 1655, " Now were the Jews admitted." But the attack on the Jews by Prynne and others could not go unanswered. Menasseh replied in the finest of his works, Vindiciae judaeorum (1656). " The best See also:tribute to its value is afforded by the fact that it has since been frequently reprinted in all parts of See also:Europe when the calumnies it denounced have been revived " (L. See also:Wolf). Among those who used in this way Menasseh's Vindiciae was See also:Moses Mendelssohn (q.v.). Soon after Menasseh See also:left London Cromwell granted him a See also:pension, but he died before he could enjoy it. See also:Death overtook him at Middleburg, as he was conveying the See also:body of his son See also:Samuel See also:home for See also:burial, Menasseh ben Israel was the author of many works, but his English tracts remain the only ones of importance. His De :See also:ermine vitae was translated into English by See also:Pococke, and his Conciliator by G. H. Undo. Among his other works were a See also:ritual compendium Tesoro dos dinim, and a See also:treatise in Hebrew on See also:immortality (Nishmath hayim). He was a friend of See also:Rembrandt, who painted his portrait and engraved four etchings to illustrate his Piedra See also:gloriosa.

These are preserved in the See also:

British Museum. See See also:Graetz, See also:History of the Jews, vol. v. ch. ii.; Lucien Wolf, Menasseh ben Israel's See also:Mission to See also:Oliver Cromwell, with a reprint of the English See also:pamphlets (London, 1901); H. See also:Adler, "A See also:Homage to Menasseh ben Israel," in Transactions of the Tewish See also:Historical Society of England, i.. 25-54. (I.

End of Article: MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL (c.1604–1657)

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