eSefarad Noticias del Mundo Sefaradi
Today I would like to start writing about a very important woman in the history of Am Israel. Probably, the woman who did the most for the people of Israel, after Esther haMalka. And I’m writing about her a day after Yom haAtzmaut, because this woman, among other things, tried to establish a Jewish state in the land of Israel. Her name: Beatriz de Luna. But she was also known as Hanna and then Gracia Mendes.
Beatriz was born in Portugal in 1510. Remember that in 1492, between 600,000 and 800,000 Jews were expelled from Spain. More than 100,000 Jews fled to Portugal, where King Juan demanded an exaggerated payment to grant permanent residence to the Jewish refugees. Most of the Jews were very poor, but 600 families were wealthy enough to pay the required sum. Beatriz’s family was one of these 600 families. The history of the integration of Jews in Portugal at this time is very complex to describe in a few lines. But let us say briefly that there was an agreement with the king: the Jews would be “nominally converted to Christianity and the king would not allow the tribunal of the Inquisition to be established in Portugal. These Jews were known as “conversos” (also “marranos”) and in Hebrew “anusim” (“converted against their will”). The Inquisition was in charge of verifying that the “conversos” did not practice any other religion. In the absence of Inquisition the Jews could live a double life: externally they lived as Christians and in their private life practiced strictly the Judaism.
As was customary in those days and in those circumstances, only at the age of 12 Beatriz’s parents told her daughter that she was Jewish.
At age 18, Beatriz got married. Her husband was Francisco Mendes. “Mendes” was the non-Jewish surname that had been adopted in these circumstances by the Benbeniste family, a family of rabbis and Tora scholars.The wedding ceremony took place in the cathedral of Lisbon. Later on, in the house, the Huppa (Jewish wedding ceremony) and the signing of the Ketuba took place. Francisco Mendes was no a common “converso”. Francisco was RAB HA-ANUSIM, “the rabbi of the converts.” Whenever a rabbi was needed for a marriage or other religious ceremony, Francisco was called to officiate.
It was through her husband Francisco זצ”ל that Beatriz knew more and more about Tora. And it was thanks to her husband that her love for the Jewish people became the passion of her life.
Francisco along with his brother Diego (Meir Benbeniste) grew immensely in their commercial activities. Francisco and Diego were in charge of administering for the king of Portugal all cargo ships arriving to Portugal from Brazil, Africa and India. It was a time of economic boom for Portugal since all the “exotic” goods (black pepper and other spices, metals and precious stones, etc.) that arrived at Lisbon were exported and marketed throughout Europe. This operation was also in the hands of the Mendes brothers. The success of the Mendes and their fortunes was so great that they created a bank, the Mendes Bank, which became the second most important bank in Europe in the 16th century (equivalent to the Rothschild Bank in the 19th Century).
But the situation for the Jews of Portugal got complicated. The Pope insisted on installing the Inquisition there. For the Church it was also an excellent economic opportunity, since if the Inquisidor would discover that a “convert” was practicing judaism, all his money, goods and property would be confiscated and transferred to the Church, and many Jewish converts in Portugal were very successful in their business. The Jews tried to postpone the arrival of the Inquisition, but finally in 1536 the papal Inquisition settled in Portugal and from that moment on it was virtually impossible for the Jews to remain there.
In 1538 Francisco passed away and left his fortune to his wife Beatriz.
That same year Beatriz, her daughter Ana and her brother-in-law Diego Mendes settled in Antwerp, Belgium, the most important financial center in Europe at the time, and they went ahead with their successful company.
It is there that Beatriz Mendes begins to transform herself into a gigantic figure for the Jewish people. First, Beatriz used the commercial route of the Mendes company (see map above) to help the Portuguese Jews escape the inquisition. Hundreds, or perhaps thousands of families escaped on the commercial ships of the Mendes, which had a safe and secure passage from Lisbon to Antwerp, from Antwerp to Ferrara or Ancona, Italy, and from Italy to Turkey, where the Jews were very warmly welcomed. And as if this were not enough, Beatriz made sure that all the goods and properties of the Jews were bought in Portugal by her company and that the Jewish refugees would receive their money from the Mendes bank once they arrived in Turkey.
To be continued…
Fuente: halakhaoftheday.org
