Menasseh ben Israel
1604 – 1657 Portuguese-born, Dutch (Sephardic Jewish) Rabbi, printer, diplomat, writer
Amsterdam rabbi who lobbied Oliver Cromwell to readmit Jews to England.
- Religion
- Judaism (Rabbinic)
- Affiliations
- Amsterdam Sephardic community
Born to a converso family that returned to Judaism in Amsterdam, Menasseh became a rabbi, ran one of the first Hebrew printing presses, and corresponded with Christian scholars. In the 1650s he petitioned Oliver Cromwell to let Jews resettle in England, from which they had been expelled in 1290. No formal readmission law resulted, but the effort opened the way for Jews to live openly in England again.
In the timeline
- 1600 The Portuguese Nation of Amsterdam mentioned