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Abraham Pereyra

January 01, 1970

Abraham Pereyra (Abraham Israel Pereyra, also Pereira) was a wealthy and prominent Portuguese Jewish merchant, who lived in Amsterdam from circa 1644 to his death in 1699.[1]

Life and Work edit

Cecil Roth, following Kayserling, says Abraham Pereyra was born in Madrid "of Marrano parentage."[2] The respected founder of the modern academic field of historical studies on the Kabbalah in Jerusalem, Gershom Scholem, following Avraham Ya'ari, articulated his origins and importance in the following manner:

..."a descendant of a family of marranos in Madrid and one of the wealthiest industrialists and merchant princes in Holland. Pereyra was much given to works of piety and devotion, and in 1659 he founded the yeshibah Hesed le-Abraham' in Hebron."[3][4]

Meyer Kayserling, who is actually the main secondary source for the rather scant extant biographical information on the subject, writes that his name before leaving Spain was Thomas Rodriguez Pereyra and that he was "persecuted by the Inquisition."[5]

Cecil Roth, in his major biography of Menasseh ben Israel, then completes the picture writing that Abraham Pereyra had amassed a considerable fortune in business, and that escaping through Venice (also following Kayserling on this detail) he arrived in Amsterdam circa 1644, where he reunited with his younger brother Isaac Pereyra (Isaac Israel Pereyra). He states, furthermore, that they had "succeeded in bringing with them from the Peninsula, unimpaired, the whole of their considerable fortune."[6]

Herbert Bloom, a student of the famous Jewish social historian Salo W. Baron, based on primary sources/documents which he researched, states that in 1655 the two brothers, Abraham and Isaac Pereyra, petitioned the government of Amsterdam for permission to establish a sugar refinery in the city. Based on a Dutch economic research work from 1908 about the Amsterdam sugar trade of the 17th century, Bloom adds the following insight: "The Pereyras are described by their fellow Jews as merchants of wealth and influence, who occupied an important place on the Exchange [Bank].".[7] The reference here is to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, started by the Dutch East India Company/VOC in 1602.

From a different perspective, and at a later point in Pereyra's life, Scholem adds that circa 1674, the followers of Sabbatai Zevi in Amsterdam "used to meet in the house of their leader, Emanuel Benattar, the hazzan of the Portuguese Synagogue, and seem to have been unmolested by the Jewish authorities, possibly because they had the very pious and very wealthy Abraham Pereyra" as one of the prominent members in their group.[8]

Financing Portuguese Jewish community religious institutions edit

Back to the initial period of Abraham Pereyra's mercantile activities in Amsterdam, both Roth and Méchoulan point out that he provided the main financial backing for the famous printing and publishing enterprise, as well as for the other varied intellectual activities of Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel all over Europe, until the latter's demise at the relatively young age of 52, in 1657.

In a curious but consistent parallel to the founding of the yeshibah in Hebron in 1659, mentioned above, the brothers Pereyra had also founded a yeshibah upon their arrival in Amsterdam circa 1644. They then appointed Menasseh ben Israel as the yeshibah's head or principal. This position provided Manasseh's main source of livelihood henceforth and until his death.[9] Roth also refers throughout the book to many of the financial problems of Manasseh's Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam, and indicates that the business may have had other sources of funds for its daily operations, besides the bulk sale of books. Abraham Pereyra, as the main personal benefactor of Menasseh, must have been also directly involved in helping finance and support the enterprise from its inception, and throughout its period of activity.[10]

Publications edit

By Abraham Pereyra edit

Publications by the author that come up in a search in the online catalogue:[11]

  • Reformacion de las eschamoth del Escher de merced de Abraham, hechas en 8. de Sebath de 5412...., Amsterdam?, 1656?[12]
  • La Certeza del Camino, Amsterdam, Estempado en casa de David de Castro Tartaz, 1666
  • Espejo de la vanidad del mundo, En Amsterdam : En casa de Alexandro Ianse, [1671]

Related to Abraham Pereyra edit

Publications with material related to the author that come up in the online catalogue:[11]

  • Manasseh ben Israel: Thesouro dos dinim ultima parte : na qual se co[n]tem todos os preceitos, ritos e ceremonias q[ue] hua perfeyta economica, dedicata a os muy nobres e magnificos senhores Abraha[m] e Ishak Israel Pereyra, Amsterdam, Na officina de Ioseph be Israel seu filho [1647].
  • Joseph Athias: Livro que contem otermo é condiçoẽs con que...[13] Kahal kadosh Talmud Torah (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Amsteoldami : Ex officina de Yosephi Athias, Anno ab orbe creato VMCCCCXIX [5419, i.e. 1659], Amsterdam, 1659

Notes edit

  1. ^ Bloom, op. cit., p. 38. Kayserling, op. cit., p. 87. Bloom, as well as the other secondary sources used here, refer not only to Abraham, but also to his younger brother Isaac, who was also a merchant and entrepreneur in his own right, and who participated with Abraham in most of the family's enterprises.
  2. ^ Roth, op. cit., p. 62.
  3. ^ Scholem, op. cit., p. 529. The head scholar of the Hebron yeshivah was Meir bar Hiyya Rofe as summarized in Yaari, Avraham (2007). "Meir ben Hiyya Rofe". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 13 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 783–784. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4 – via Gale Virtual Reference Library.
  4. ^ However, Scholem's description of Pereyra is even more exuberant in the Encyclopedia Judaica entry on Sabbatai Zevi, written by him as a summary of his life-long studies in Sabbateanism during the 1970s:
    ...Abraham Pereyra, said to be the richest Jew in Amsterdam and certainly a deeply devout man, lent his enormous prestige to the cause and, after publishing a comprehensive book of morals for repentant sinners (La Certeza del Camino, 1666), left with his entourage for the Levant, although he was held up in Leghorn.
    Scholem, Gershom (2007). "Shabbetai Ẓevi". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 18 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. p. 340-359. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4 – via Gale Virtual Reference Library.
  5. ^ Kayserling, id., p. 87. It is worth to reproduce here in translation from the French the entire paragraph written there by Kayserling about the subject:
    "Alias Thomas Rodriguez Pereyra, born in Madrid, persecuted by the Inquisition, he fled to Venice and from there to Amsterdam. Very esteemed because of his wealth and his talents, he was for many years the president of the Portuguese Jewish Community in Amsterdam, and as such he was also one of the adherents of Sabbatai Zevi's religious sect. Pereyra, who died in Amsterdam in 1699, had five sons and three daughters. One of the daughters, Rebecca, was the wife of Jacob de Pinto, another one, called Rachel, was the wife of Abraham Cuitiño."
  6. ^ Roth, id., pp. 62-63.
  7. ^ Bloom, id., pp 38-39.
  8. ^ Scholem, id., p. 893; see also p. 755.
  9. ^ Roth, id., p. 63
  10. ^ Roth, id., passim; specifically on pp. 316-317; Méchoulan and Nahon, op. cit., p.40, p. 70; Bloom, id., pp. XVI-XVII.
  11. ^ a b Abraham Pereyra in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
  12. ^ Full title: Reformacion de las eschamoth del Escher de merced de Abraham, hechas en 8. de Sebath de 5412. cuyo principio fue en la santa ciudad de Hebron adõde está situado, empessó en primero de Ylul de 5413. y en 6 de Nissan de 5416. reformamos dichas eschamoth acrescentãdo la espacá, del Escher, a patacas 470. en lugar de 400. con que sefundó, que se compone su capital de florins 22000 y agora en 15. de Menahem, que es el dia en q[ue] se ẽcargarõ los Srs. del Mahamad deste K.K. de Talmut Thorah desta ciudad de Amsterdam, del capital de dicho Escher con la administracion del, fue fuerça, hazer reformacion de dichas eschamoth, pidiendo al Señor, lo envolunte, y cõserve, y que siempre vaya en augmento. according to Worldcat, consulted on 29 April 2020.
  13. ^ Full title: "Livro que contem otermo é condiçoẽs con que os Srs. do Mahamad do K.K. de T.T. admitiraõ ó legado que nelle constitutió, Abraham Pereira, de fl. 46000 : aplicados seus reditos para ó Esguer que tem fundado en Hebron, intitulado Merced de Abraham : para cazar orphãs de sua decendencia, para alimentar pobres de sua geraçaõ, é para premiar moços pobres seus parentes meditantes na ley divina : juntamente o modo con que hũ é outro se ha dedestribuir : como tambem as eschamoth con que se governaõ os que meditaõ em dito Escher de Hebron : effectuousse no ano 5419. acriaçaõ do mundo.
    Joseph Athias; Kahal kadosh Talmud Torah (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
    Amsteoldami : Ex officina de Yosephi Athias, Anno ab orbe creato VMCCCCXIX [5419, i.e. 1659] according to Worldcat, consulted on 29 April 2020.

References edit

  • Amzalak, Moses Bensabat, Abraham Israel Pereyra; Noticia Bibliografica, Lisbon, 1927
  • Bloom, Herbert I., The Economic Activities of Jews of Amsterdam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, The Bayard Press, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 1937.
  • Kayserling, Meyer, Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica; Dictionnaire Bibliographique, Strasbourg, 1890.
  • Méchoulan, Henry, Hispanidad y Judaismo en tiempos de Espinoza: Estudio y edicion anotada de La Certeza del Camino de Abraham Pereyra, Amsterdam 1666, (Acta Salmanticencia), Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 1987.
  • Méchoulan, Henry, and Nahon, Gérard (eds.), Menasseh Ben Israel. The Hope of Israel, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987 - ISBN 0-19-710054-6.
  • Roth, Cecil, A Life of Manasseh Ben Israel, Rabbi, Printer, and Diplomat, Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1934.
  • Gershom Scholem: Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah: 1626-1676: London: Routledge Kegan Paul: 1973: ISBN 0-7100-7703-3: American Edition: Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1973: ISBN 0-691-09916-2 (hardcover edn.).

External links edit

  • Jewish Encyclopedia (2007): "PEREYRA, ABRAHAM ISRAEL (Marano name, Thomas Rodrigues Pereyra)" by Isidore Singer and Meyer Kayserling

January 01, 1970
abraham, pereyra, abraham, israel, pereyra, also, pereira, wealthy, prominent, portuguese, jewish, merchant, lived, amsterdam, from, circa, 1644, death, 1699, contents, life, work, financing, portuguese, jewish, community, religious, institutions, publications. Abraham Pereyra Abraham Israel Pereyra also Pereira was a wealthy and prominent Portuguese Jewish merchant who lived in Amsterdam from circa 1644 to his death in 1699 1 Contents 1 Life and Work 2 Financing Portuguese Jewish community religious institutions 3 Publications 3 1 By Abraham Pereyra 3 2 Related to Abraham Pereyra 4 Notes 5 References 6 External linksLife and Work editCecil Roth following Kayserling says Abraham Pereyra was born in Madrid of Marrano parentage 2 The respected founder of the modern academic field of historical studies on the Kabbalah in Jerusalem Gershom Scholem following Avraham Ya ari articulated his origins and importance in the following manner a descendant of a family of marranos in Madrid and one of the wealthiest industrialists and merchant princes in Holland Pereyra was much given to works of piety and devotion and in 1659 he founded the yeshibah Hesed le Abraham in Hebron 3 4 Meyer Kayserling who is actually the main secondary source for the rather scant extant biographical information on the subject writes that his name before leaving Spain was Thomas Rodriguez Pereyra and that he was persecuted by the Inquisition 5 Cecil Roth in his major biography of Menasseh ben Israel then completes the picture writing that Abraham Pereyra had amassed a considerable fortune in business and that escaping through Venice also following Kayserling on this detail he arrived in Amsterdam circa 1644 where he reunited with his younger brother Isaac Pereyra Isaac Israel Pereyra He states furthermore that they had succeeded in bringing with them from the Peninsula unimpaired the whole of their considerable fortune 6 Herbert Bloom a student of the famous Jewish social historian Salo W Baron based on primary sources documents which he researched states that in 1655 the two brothers Abraham and Isaac Pereyra petitioned the government of Amsterdam for permission to establish a sugar refinery in the city Based on a Dutch economic research work from 1908 about the Amsterdam sugar trade of the 17th century Bloom adds the following insight The Pereyras are described by their fellow Jews as merchants of wealth and influence who occupied an important place on the Exchange Bank 7 The reference here is to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange the oldest stock exchange in the world started by the Dutch East India Company VOC in 1602 From a different perspective and at a later point in Pereyra s life Scholem adds that circa 1674 the followers of Sabbatai Zevi in Amsterdam used to meet in the house of their leader Emanuel Benattar the hazzan of the Portuguese Synagogue and seem to have been unmolested by the Jewish authorities possibly because they had the very pious and very wealthy Abraham Pereyra as one of the prominent members in their group 8 Financing Portuguese Jewish community religious institutions editBack to the initial period of Abraham Pereyra s mercantile activities in Amsterdam both Roth and Mechoulan point out that he provided the main financial backing for the famous printing and publishing enterprise as well as for the other varied intellectual activities of Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel all over Europe until the latter s demise at the relatively young age of 52 in 1657 In a curious but consistent parallel to the founding of the yeshibah in Hebron in 1659 mentioned above the brothers Pereyra had also founded a yeshibah upon their arrival in Amsterdam circa 1644 They then appointed Menasseh ben Israel as the yeshibah s head or principal This position provided Manasseh s main source of livelihood henceforth and until his death 9 Roth also refers throughout the book to many of the financial problems of Manasseh s Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam and indicates that the business may have had other sources of funds for its daily operations besides the bulk sale of books Abraham Pereyra as the main personal benefactor of Menasseh must have been also directly involved in helping finance and support the enterprise from its inception and throughout its period of activity 10 Publications editBy Abraham Pereyra edit Publications by the author that come up in a search in the online catalogue 11 Reformacion de las eschamoth del Escher de merced de Abraham hechas en 8 de Sebath de 5412 Amsterdam 1656 12 La Certeza del Camino Amsterdam Estempado en casa de David de Castro Tartaz 1666 Espejo de la vanidad del mundo En Amsterdam En casa de Alexandro Ianse 1671 Related to Abraham Pereyra edit Publications with material related to the author that come up in the online catalogue 11 Manasseh ben Israel Thesouro dos dinim ultima parte na qual se co n tem todos os preceitos ritos e ceremonias q ue hua perfeyta economica dedicata a os muy nobres e magnificos senhores Abraha m e Ishak Israel Pereyra Amsterdam Na officina de Ioseph be Israel seu filho 1647 Joseph Athias Livro que contem otermo e condicoẽs con que 13 Kahal kadosh Talmud Torah Amsterdam Netherlands Amsteoldami Ex officina de Yosephi Athias Anno ab orbe creato VMCCCCXIX 5419 i e 1659 Amsterdam 1659Notes edit Bloom op cit p 38 Kayserling op cit p 87 Bloom as well as the other secondary sources used here refer not only to Abraham but also to his younger brother Isaac who was also a merchant and entrepreneur in his own right and who participated with Abraham in most of the family s enterprises Roth op cit p 62 Scholem op cit p 529 The head scholar of the Hebron yeshivah was Meir bar Hiyya Rofe as summarized in Yaari Avraham 2007 Meir ben Hiyya Rofe In Berenbaum Michael Skolnik Fred eds Encyclopaedia Judaica Vol 13 2nd ed Detroit Macmillan Reference pp 783 784 ISBN 978 0 02 866097 4 via Gale Virtual Reference Library However Scholem s description of Pereyra is even more exuberant in the Encyclopedia Judaica entry on Sabbatai Zevi written by him as a summary of his life long studies in Sabbateanism during the 1970s Abraham Pereyra said to be the richest Jew in Amsterdam and certainly a deeply devout man lent his enormous prestige to the cause and after publishing a comprehensive book of morals for repentant sinners La Certeza del Camino 1666 left with his entourage for the Levant although he was held up in Leghorn Scholem Gershom 2007 Shabbetai Ẓevi In Berenbaum Michael Skolnik Fred eds Encyclopaedia Judaica Vol 18 2nd ed Detroit Macmillan Reference p 340 359 ISBN 978 0 02 866097 4 via Gale Virtual Reference Library Kayserling id p 87 It is worth to reproduce here in translation from the French the entire paragraph written there by Kayserling about the subject Alias Thomas Rodriguez Pereyra born in Madrid persecuted by the Inquisition he fled to Venice and from there to Amsterdam Very esteemed because of his wealth and his talents he was for many years the president of the Portuguese Jewish Community in Amsterdam and as such he was also one of the adherents of Sabbatai Zevi s religious sect Pereyra who died in Amsterdam in 1699 had five sons and three daughters One of the daughters Rebecca was the wife of Jacob de Pinto another one called Rachel was the wife of Abraham Cuitino Roth id pp 62 63 Bloom id pp 38 39 Scholem id p 893 see also p 755 Roth id p 63 Roth id passim specifically on pp 316 317 Mechoulan and Nahon op cit p 40 p 70 Bloom id pp XVI XVII a b Abraham Pereyra in libraries WorldCat catalog Full title Reformacion de las eschamoth del Escher de merced de Abraham hechas en 8 de Sebath de 5412 cuyo principio fue en la santa ciudad de Hebron adode esta situado empesso en primero de Ylul de 5413 y en 6 de Nissan de 5416 reformamos dichas eschamoth acrescentado la espaca del Escher a patacas 470 en lugar de 400 con que sefundo que se compone su capital de florins 22000 y agora en 15 de Menahem que es el dia en q ue se ẽcargaro los Srs del Mahamad deste K K de Talmut Thorah desta ciudad de Amsterdam del capital de dicho Escher con la administracion del fue fuerca hazer reformacion de dichas eschamoth pidiendo al Senor lo envolunte y coserve y que siempre vaya en augmento according to Worldcat consulted on 29 April 2020 Full title Livro que contem otermo e condicoẽs con que os Srs do Mahamad do K K de T T admitirao o legado que nelle constitutio Abraham Pereira de fl 46000 aplicados seus reditos para o Esguer que tem fundado en Hebron intitulado Merced de Abraham para cazar orphas de sua decendencia para alimentar pobres de sua geracao e para premiar mocos pobres seus parentes meditantes na ley divina juntamente o modo con que hũ e outro se ha dedestribuir como tambem as eschamoth con que se governao os que meditao em dito Escher de Hebron effectuousse no ano 5419 acriacao do mundo Joseph Athias Kahal kadosh Talmud Torah Amsterdam Netherlands Amsteoldami Ex officina de Yosephi Athias Anno ab orbe creato VMCCCCXIX 5419 i e 1659 according to Worldcat consulted on 29 April 2020 References editAmzalak Moses Bensabat Abraham Israel Pereyra Noticia Bibliografica Lisbon 1927 Bloom Herbert I The Economic Activities of Jews of Amsterdam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries The Bayard Press Williamsport Pennsylvania 1937 Kayserling Meyer Biblioteca Espanola Portugueza Judaica Dictionnaire Bibliographique Strasbourg 1890 Mechoulan Henry Hispanidad y Judaismo en tiempos de Espinoza Estudio y edicion anotada de La Certeza del Camino de Abraham Pereyra Amsterdam 1666 Acta Salmanticencia Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca 1987 Mechoulan Henry and Nahon Gerard eds Menasseh Ben Israel The Hope of Israel Oxford University Press Oxford 1987 ISBN 0 19 710054 6 Roth Cecil A Life of Manasseh Ben Israel Rabbi Printer and Diplomat Philadelphia The Jewish Publication Society of America 1934 Gershom Scholem Sabbatai Sevi The Mystical Messiah 1626 1676 London Routledge Kegan Paul 1973 ISBN 0 7100 7703 3 American Edition Princeton Princeton University Press 1973 ISBN 0 691 09916 2 hardcover edn External links editJewish Encyclopedia 2007 PEREYRA ABRAHAM ISRAEL Marano name Thomas Rodrigues Pereyra by Isidore Singer and Meyer Kayserling Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Abraham Pereyra amp oldid 1191037299, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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