segunda-feira, 5 de setembro de 2011

Gracia Nasi

Gracia Nasi was born into an ancient and venerable family of Spanish Jews that immigrated to Portugal when Spain expelled its Jews in 1492. Along with the thousands of other Jewish refugees of the Spanish Inquisition, the family was forcibly converted to Christianity by the Portuguese king in 1497. These converted Jews were known by the gentiles as "Marranos" or "New Christians."

Bearing the Christianized name Beatrice de Luna, she enters recorded history in 1528 at 18 years of age in Lisbon. This was when she married Francisco Mendes, whose wealthy Spanish Jewish banking family had also fled the Inquisition and settled in Portugal. Fiercely devoted to Judaism despite her New Christian status, Doña Beatrice Mendes (Doña is a formal title meaning "Mrs.") was, in her private life, called by her Jewish name Gracia Nasi (Gracia is the Spanish equivalent of Hannah, Nasi her family's ancestral name).

Doña Beatrice Mendes was widowed in 1536, at which time she went to Antwerp, where her brother-in-law Diogo Mendes had moved the family business years before. At his death in 1542 she inherited control of the Mendes fortune and soon proved to be highly courageous and an excellent businesswoman. As Diogo had done before, she continued using the family's contacts and resources to help Jews escape the Inquisition, and this meant that she and her remaining family were constantly in danger.

Over the next 11 years, she moved across Europe with her daughter, her sister, and her daughter- and son-in-law, traveling from Antwerp through France, Italy, and Turkey. The Inquisition pursued them, local rulers relentlessly crying heresy and attempting to confiscate their fortune. Even her own sister denounced her as a Judaizer in hopes of gaining control of the family's riches. With amazing diplomacy, shrewdness, and business acumen, she managed to escape each assault and continue building the family business.

Doña Beatrice and her family finally reached Turkey in 1553, where they settled near Constantinople. Finally free to openly live as a Jew, she de-Christianized her maiden and married names and was called Gracia Nasi once and for all. Throughout her life, she was known for her generosity and her devotion to Judaism and her fellow Jews. She died in 1569.

View the complete map of the late 15th, early 16th-century travels of the House of Nasi

Read more about the life of Beatrice Mendes (as narrated in historian Cecil Roth's biography, Do�a Gracia of the House of Nasi), by clicking on any of the four points on the following sketch (following the expulsion from Spain and Portugal).



http://dererummundi.blogspot.com/2010/10/ainda-mostra-sobre-gracia-nasi-e-outros.html

http://www.outofspain.com/adult_lectures.html


http://donagracianasi.blogspot.com/2010/08/dona-gracia-nasi-la-senora.html

Dona Gracia Nasi, “La Señora”

Doña Gracia Nasi (c. 1510–1569) was among the most formidable figures of the Sephardi world in the sixteenth century. Her dramatic (indeed melodramatic) life began in Portugal, where she was born into a Jewish family whose members had recently been forcibly baptized. It ended in Constantinople after a career that brought her renown as a shrewd and resourceful businesswoman, a leader of the Sephardi diaspora, and a generous benefactor of Jewish enterprises. She became known among her contemporaries simply as “La Señora.”

Little is known of her early life. She was descended from a distinguished Spanish Jewish family bearing the name “Nasi.” Her parents may well have been among the Spanish-Jewish exiles who left Spain for Portugal in 1492, only to be forcibly baptized in Portugal in 1497. In any case, the family assumed “de Luna” as its Christian name. The child who was to become Gracia Nasi was born around 1510 and was named Beatrice.

In 1528 Beatrice married Francisco Mendes Benveniste, a wealthy New Christian merchant in Lisbon, whose fortune derived from trade in the East Indies. With her husband’s death in January 1535, Beatrice was left a young widow with an infant daughter Ana (c. 1534–1599). It is noteworthy that in his will Francisco divided responsibility for the administration of his fortune between his wife and his brother (and business partner) Diogo (d. 1543), a fifty-year-old merchant in Antwerp who, since 1525, had been a leading figure in the Portuguese pepper and spice trade. Francisco evidently recognized his young wife’s intelligence and resourcefulness.

These were qualities that, as fate would have it, Beatrice would sorely need. At the time of Francisco’s death the very survival of the family was threatened by developments on the religio-political scene: On May 23, 1536, the pope ordered the establishment of a Portuguese Inquisition on the Spanish model. For the previous four decades, the Nasi and Mendes families had almost certainly maintained crypto-Jewish traditions while outwardly conforming to Catholicism. An arrest of its members by the Inquisition would probably have meant conviction and the confiscation of the family fortune.

It was under these circumstances that, shortly after her husband’s death, Beatrice Mendes left Lisbon with her daughter Ana and her younger sister Brianda (b. after 1510). After a brief stay in London, the Lisbon emigres joined Diogo Mendes in Antwerp, which at the time was the leading financial center of Europe. It was also, however, under Spanish rule, and thus within the jurisdiction of the Spanish Inquisition. Indeed, Diogo had had a brush with the Inquisition: he was arrested in 1532 and released only after intervention by the king of Portugal, João III (r. 1521–1557). The resettlement in Antwerp of the Lisbon members of the family probably had a temporary aim, namely to organize for removal to a more secure place and to transfer the family fortune.

Read more HERE
© Jewish Women's Archive, Dona Gracia Nasi, by Miram Bodian.

Miriam Bodian is professor of Jewish History at the Graduate School for Jewish Studies, Touro College, New York. She is the author of Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation: Conversos and Community in Early Modern Amsterdam (which won the National Jewish Book Award in History and the Koret Prize) and of Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in Iberian Lands, 1570–1670.

Sovre dos aniversaryos emportantes de 2010

Antes de azer los adios al anyo 2010, kije akodrarme de los dos aniversaryos emportantes ke tuvimos oganyo: el de 500 anyos del nasimiento de Doña Gracia Nasi, i el de 150 anyos de la kreasion de la Alliance Israelite Universelle. Es muestro dover komo Sefaradim de konoser I apresyar estas dos grandes influensas en la estorya de muestro puevlo.

Donya Grasia Nasi (Beatrice de Luna, kuando se pasava por kristiana) es una eroina de la istoria sefaradi, konosida por los djudios del Imperio Otomano komo “La Sinyora” kon muncho karinyo I respekto, famoza por su filantropizmo por el bienestar de djudios i djudaismo, ansi ke su kapachidad en negosio, su koraje kontra la maldicha Inkizision, I su poder kon reyes I governadores, I mezmo el sultan otomano. Kuando la Tierra Santa vino debasho del domino otomano, tuvo la idea de re-krear en Tiberia una komunidad djudia otonoma, para una futura “kaza nasionala” para el puevlo djudio. Esto, mas de 300 anyos antes de Theodor Herzl!

En Israel oganyo, el 24 Oktubre, uvo una seremonia de komemorasion de Grasia Nasi en la rezidensia prezidensial (Beit Hanassi) en Yerushalayim, ande partisiparon el Presidente Shimon Peres, sinyor Yitzhak Navon (el sinken prezidente del Estado de Israel i agora presidente de La Autoridad de Ladino), el Ministro de Edukasion Gideon Sa’ar, I munchos otros dinyitarios. El sinyor Sa’ar disho ke Donya Grasia era Sionista antes ke el biervo egzistiera. Una kurta reprezentasion teatral mostro una topadura imajinaria entre Donya Grasia i Herzl, ande Herzl atribuo la kreasion del sionizmo a Donya Grasia. Su vida se va ensenyar de agora endelantre en los liseos I en la armada de Israel.

En los Estados Unidos, oganyo se fondo el “Doña Gracia Project” (DGP), kon el buto de promover la konosensia de Donya Grasia, I de kriar un fondo de bekas para ijas ke estudian finansia I komerso. Entre las fondadoras esta Andree Aelion Brooks, autora del livro “The Woman who Defied Kings: The life and times of Doña Gracia Nasi, A Jewish Leader during the Renaissance” (“La mujer ke konfronto reyes… una lider djudia durante la Renasensia”) publikado en 2004. El primer programa del DGP se izo en New York el 8 Junio, 2010.

Para saver mas sovre esta sovresaliente mujer, vos ago akodrar ke aki en eSefarad se publikaron unos kuantos artikolos, ke se pueden topar en metiendo “Dona Gracia” en “buscar.” I komo mos aviza Gad Nasi en su artikolo, podesh abashar del Internet su livriko biografiko en inglez. En kualker lingua ke preferash meldar, no mankan artikolos I livros sovre eya.

El nombre de Donya Grasia se topa oy en dia en una kaye, un muzeo, i un otel en Tiberia. Otro lugar ande bive su memoria es Izmir, Turkia, ande ay un kal antiguo “La Sinyora” o Giveret en ebreo, otentikamente renovado, I mantenido en buen estado (En Estambol tambien se topava un kal I una yeshiva kon el mizmo nombre, ma este ya no egziste.)

Ma mas muncho de todo, el nombre de Grasia Nasi sera siempre gravado en su lugar de onor en muestra memorya djudia i sefaradi.

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La Alliance Israelite Universelle se fondo en Paris en 1860 para la edukasion de kriaturas djudias en el mundo, I establesio munchas eskolas en el Imperio Otomano. Munchos de muestros padres I madres (o nonos I nonas) estudiaron en estas eskolas yamadas en muestra lingua “La Aliansa.”. Aunke lo mas de los elevos eran djudios, aviya tambien muslumanos I kristianos porke las eskolas de la Alliance se konsian por sus alta kualidad de edukasion evropea, la lengua I kultura franseza, I disiplina kon respekto, I toleransa mutual.

Rene Cassin, ke fue el prezidente de la AIU de 1943 asta 1976, era el autor prinsipal de la Deklarasion Universal de Derechos Umanos de 1948. (El era miembro del governo de Fransia Libera de Charles de Gaulle en Londra durante la Sigunda Gerra Mondial.)

En Fransia se selebro los 150 anyos de la AIU kon varias aktividades. En verano, kanal 2 de TV France mostro dos programas de 30 minutos sovre la Alliance, el sigundo siendo sovre la libreria djudaika de la Alliance, ke es la mas grande de Evropa. Tambien se organizo una ekspozision en la Munisipalidad de Paris del 4 Septembre al 16 Oktobre, ande se mostro fotos, videos I objetos de la prezensia de las eskolas de Alliance en los paises mediterraneos, asta ke estas fueron serradas despues del establesimiento del Estado de Israel. Ma la AIU nunka kedo de ser aktiva, I agora esta vriendo eskolas en Evropa I Amerika.

Tambien se publikaron timbros postales a esta okazion, uno en Israel en enero, I otro en Fransia en septembre. El timbro Israeli tiene foto de una eskola de la Alliance en Teheran en 1936, I el fransez amostra dos estudiantes, un ijiko I una ijika, eskriviendo en un tablo de klasa el biervo “ambezar” en fransez, arabo. I ebreo.

Estas enformasiones las tomi de un artikolo en el periodiko “the Israeli Philatelist” eskrito por Jean-Paul Danon, ke su padre, Abraham Danon, fue direktor de la eskola de la Aliansa en Estambol en presipio del siglo vente.

Kon todo lo bueno de edukasion moderna ke trusho la AIU a la jenerasion de muestros padres I avuelos, no podemos enyegar ke esta edukasion inyoro, I menospresio, muestra lingua djudeoespanyola. Ma en okazion del aniversaryo, no es djusto kritikar al ke esta fiestando, I por esto no diremos mas nada agora, otro de felisitar a la Alliance Israelite Universelle, I ogurarle munchos anyos I siglos mas de aktividad en favor de muestro puevlo I la umanidad.

Rachel Amado Bortnick
Dallas – USA