As we saw with the Person of the Week last week, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, being a Jew in medieval and Renaissance Europe was difficult and often dangerous. But revered scholars and community leaders like Nachmanides were often spared the gruesome fates of common Jews. In Middle Ages Spain there was a significant Jewish population thanks to the comparatively lenient laws of the Muslim dynasties that controlled much of the country. With the Reconquista, Catholic rulers returned to Spain from the north, bringing their much harsher policies with them. Jews were persecuted, expelled and even mass-murdered for their beliefs. As a result, many became Conversos, Jews who outwardly professed Catholicism but practiced Judaism in secret. One of the most influential among them was a Conversa named Gracia Mendes Nasi.
In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued the Alhambra Decree, formally expelling all Jews from the country. This was just one of many vehemently anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim laws issued by the monarchs. Many Jews, whether open or Converso, left this oppression for the somewhat friendlier nation of Portugal, bringing with them a significant amount of wealth. One such family originally from densely Jewish Aragon settled in Lisbon where they welcomed their daughter Gracia into the world in 1510.
Gracia married into the Mendes family, whose name used to be Benveniste. That name should be familiar from last week's feature as well. Rabbi Nachman's brother was a Benveniste. In Gracia's case, her husband was Francisco Mendes, a man who ran one of Europe's most successful trading companies with his brother Diogo. After the death of her husband and his brother soon after, Gracia took control of the family's commercial interests.
Gracia Mendes was perhaps the most successful, influential businesswoman of her time (which isn't to say she had a lot of competition in the 16th century). She was an incredibly smart, crafty woman, and brave. Using her wealth and influence, she freed countless persecuted Jews from unjust imprisonment, secretly funded the printing of important Jewish texts and even swayed the papacy to delay supporting the Inquisition in Portugal.
Gracia's later life was wrought with turmoil. Fleeing Portugal, she found herself in Venice where Jews were eventually blamed for an outbreak of bubonic plague. She was arrested and eventually escaped to the city of Ferrara, now unable to live behind the mask of the Conversa. Finally acknowledging this part of her identity, she adopted a Jewish surname, Nasi.
Gracia Nasi became a significant political activist in this period. In response to a state-sanctioned murder of several Jews in Portugal, Gracia Nasi used her still significant wealth and influence to place a trade embargo on the port of Ancona. She continued her religious philanthropy by funding the construction of Jewish schools and synagogues, as well as providing study grants to promising scholars. One of the synagogues she built in the city of Istanbul still functions today.
In the final years of her life, Gracia Nasi leased the Galilee, Palestine town of Tiberius (modern Tverya, Israel) from the Sultan Suleiman, paving the way for her son-in-law's eventual governorship of Tiberius and Safed, thereby safeguarding the continued, safe settlement of Jews in the region. Gracia Nasi died outside of Istanbul in 1569.
There are many great women in the history of Judaism, people of strength, wits and compassion. Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi fought for the safety of her people, ensuring a prosperous future for us all.