One person in Jewish history personally encapsulates the 17th century trend towards Biblical criticism, and the shift of population, wealth, and power from the Iberian kingdoms to Britain and the Netherlands.

In this post, we shift from the history of Ashkenazi Jewry (those descended from German-speaking lands) to Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese) speaking communities. There is a tendency to associate “Ashkenazi” with communities that developed under Christian rulers, and “Sephardi” which those under Islamic rule, but as you’ll see below, that it an oversimplification that isn’t useful for cultural or historical analysis.

Menasheh Ben Israel was born on the Portuguese Island of Madeira in 1604 and emigrated as a child with his family, fleeing the Inquisition, to Holland.

In his 20s, he brought and managed the first Hebrew Printing Press to Amsterdam. Although Hebrew printing had begun earlier in Northern Italy, Amsterdam was to be a major center of Hebrew books throughout the early modern age. He wrote and published books in Hebrew, Spanish, and Latin. Ben Israel was influential in creating a Sephardic Jewish community of Iberian refugees who had previously been outwardly practicing Catholicism. He visited the New World Colony of Recife, but returned back to Amsterdam.

As the reformation progressed, Calvinists in particular became interested in studying the Hebrew Bible in the original language, so Hebrew printing became influential to both Jews and Christians in the region. Similarly, Menasheh maintained contacts with the Royal courts of Europe, offering to provide them with Hebrew books.

Toward the end of his life, Ben Israel requested from Cromwell to allow Jewish settlement in England. The Jews had been expelled from England in 1290. Ben Israel and a small delegation visited London in 1656-7, and secured the right to settle and pray privately for a community of Dutch Jews. Cromwell was, well, a Millenarian psycho and Ben Israel spoke to his fantasies, self righteousness, and fervor. One could draw a pretty straight line from Cromwell’s conditional philosemitism to the Balfour declaration and the Christian Zionism of today.