eSefarad Noticias del Mundo Sefaradi
In 1553 Doña Gracia Mendes Nasi arrived in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). She was accompanied by an entourage of about 200 people and 40 guards and was received with the honors due to a Queen.
In Turkey the Jews lived very well under he Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566). Prior to Suleiman, the former Sultan Bayazid II (1447-1512) had ordered the governors of the Turkish Empire to generously receive the Sepharadic refugees and to facilitate their permanent residence. This same policy was continued by Suleiman, who is credited with the phrase referred to Ferdinand, the king of Spain: “Are you calling him an intelligent king, who impoverished his states to enrich mine?”
In Turkey, while her increasingly successful business was run by her nephew Yosef Nasi, Doña Gracia dedicated herself to charity work and especially to helping the re-establishment of the anusim, the Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal, returning to their faith.
Cecil Roth writes something that surprised even the fans of Doña Gracia. Doña Gracia lived in a very luxurious mansion … “eighty paupers were fed each day at her table” (P.103). Thus, the rich ate with the poor, raising thus the prestige of the poor. And apart from that, other wealthy people, always eager to imitate Doña Gracia, also began to receive poor people and having them daily at their table.
And there were many people in need…. because more and more refugees were coming to Turkey from Spain, Portugal and other European countries, for the possibility of living there openly as Jews.
The Sephardic refugees settled mainly in the city of Salonica (Thessaloniki) a very important port, that in those years became the only city in the world with a majority of Jewish population. Doña Gracia took care that they will not lack food or a place of residence. And also work. In addition to absorbing them in the port activity (the expertise of the Mendes House), Doña Gracia founded a textile company in Thessaloniki to provide wok for them.
Many of the inhabitants of Thessaloniki, where the predominant language was the Ladino, were Jews who were freed from the hands of pirates. At that time, it was very common for pirates to attack other ships and capture the passengers to sell them as slaves. Pirates always found buyers for Jewish slaves, since their Jewish brothers did their utmost to free them. Ships with Jewish human cargo arrived at the port of Salonica permanently. Doña Gracia was behind the efforts and negotiations to free the captives Yehudim, fulfilling the Mitsva, which is considered one of the most important of all the Tora: Pidyon Shebuim (rescuing Jewish prisoners). There are documents, for example, of a ship that was kidnapped by pirates from Malta, which was taken to Salonica with 70 Jews offered for sale. It is said that sometimes the ransom price was exorbitant: up to 500 ducats (= 3.5 grams of gold) per person. Thanks to the efforts of Doña Gracia thousands of Yehudim were rescued and released from their captivity.
In Salonica Doña Gracia also founded a Talmud Tora, a Jewish school, which eventually had 10,000 students and 200 teachers. She also founded and maintained a prestigious Yeshiba (rabbinic academy) headed by the famous Ribbi Shemuel de Medina. This was a very special rabbinical academy. In addition to regular students, every year Doña Gracia invited and sponsored three rabbis from other Jewish communities to study for a year with Ribbí Shemuel de Medina, the most brilliant Halakhic mind of the diaspora in those times.
Doña Gracia also founded a very special Synagogue in Thessaloniki, Leviyat Hen. This Synagogue was conceived exclusively for the anusim, those Yehudim who had been forcibly converted in Spain and Portugal to Christianity. In that Synagogue were slowly being taught Tora (Judaism) and Tefila (prayers) before they were integrated into the community.
To be continued….
TO THE READER: Originally I thought of writing just one or two articles about Doña Gracia, but as I was writing, I thought it was very meritorious to know a little better the history of this exceptional Tsadeqet, not just to honor her (unjustly forgotten!) memory, but also, I think, to inspire many of us to follow in her footsteps, and learn to dedicate our efforts and our means to the study of Tora and to doing good deeds with our brothers and sisters Yehudim.
Fuente: halakhaoftheday.org
