Gracia Nasi was a Jewish leader in Holland. Italy, and Turkey. Beatrice de Luna was her assumed Christian name. At the same time Dona Gracia was Constantinople’s greatest patron of Jewish learning. She established a yeshiva and endowed a beautiful synagogue which for centuries was known as “the synagogue of the Señora.” She financed a study center for rabbinic study with the innovation of a rotation of its student scholars.
Background
Born to a Marrano family in Portugal, at age eighteen she married Francisco Mendes, a businessman in precious stones and a banker.
When he died in 1536, leaving her with a young daughter, Gracia Mendes decided to leave Portugal, to which the Inquisition had just been extended. She moved to Antwerp, where her brother-in-law, Diogo Mendes, directed the flourishing branch of the family bank, and the two devised an underground network to get Marranos out of Spain and Portugal. The scheme enabled the refugees to complete the arduous voyage to the Balkans, where they could openly profess Judaism.
Career
After Diogo died in 1543, she moved to Italy. There she began to practice Judaism openly and became known by her Jewish name, Gracia Nasi. Living in Ferrara, she continued to help her fellow Jews escape from Portugal, assisting them to transfer their wealth and to settle in Ferrara or Turkey. However, intolerance again spread through Christian Europe, and former Marranos could no longer feel safe.
In 1553, therefore, she took her family to Constantinople. Her arrival was an occasion for celebration by the city’s Jews, as by this time she had become a legendary figure and the Ottoman authorities were eagerly welcoming wealthy Jewish newcomers. Gracia and her family took up residence in a fashionable suburb. In her princely home, some eighty paupers were given free meals each day. Charity on such a scale was made possible by Gracia’s large overseas business interests with Italian cities, to which she mainly exported wool, pepper, and grain. In turn she imported cloth and textiles, and her volume of business was so great she had her own ships to transport the goods.
She sought to utilize her financial power and influence to intervene on behalf of Jews persecuted elsewhere. Her use of financial pressure to combat anti-Semitism was an innovation and aroused controversy in the Jewish world. The setting for her most dramatic episode was the Italian port of Ancona. Promised protection by the pope, one hundred Jewish families, including Marranos, moved to Ancona, but during the Counter Reformation their privileges were withdrawn and they were confined to a ghetto.
The ex-Marranos were rounded up and after making public penance were imprisoned; those who refused to recant were strangled and burnt (1555). In reaction Gracia Mendes asked the sultan of Turkey to intervene on behalf of Anconan Jewry and organized an international Jewish boycott of the city. She urged Jews throughout the Ottoman Empire to excommunicate any Jews who continued trading with Ancona. Not all Jews supported her initiative, however, and business and rabbinical opposition to the blockade won out (with unfortunate consequences as foreseen by Gracia Mendes).
Personality
On her death she was mourned throughout the Jewish world as the outstanding Jewish woman of her time