Who Was Dona Gracia Nasi? Jewish Biography as History Dr. Henry Abramson
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Lecture on the life and work of Dona Gracia Nasi (also known as Beatrice de Luna Mendes), a heroic Jewish woman of the 16th century. Fleeing the Inquisition in Portugal, she used her considerable wealth and courage to spirit converso Jews out of Europe to refuge in Ottoman lands.
This woman saved my Sephardic ancestors thank you for uploading this lecture.
Very meaningful
I’m not Jewish, but I am her descendant, and I am proud of my Sephardic forebears. Thank you Dr. Abramson
you’re proud of your blood but not the religion? why? that’s so odd?
Her history was one of the inspirations for the writing of my historical novel "Marrana! - Amor e Intolerância em Tempos de Intolerância". I read "The woman who defied Kings", but I would like to thank you for the lecture, very clear and full of information. In return, being Brazilian, I would like to suggest a way for Professor Abramson to to pronounce, the name of King João, the Portuguese king he mentioned in minute 26:49. It is really hard for non Portuguese speakers. Connect the first to letters of John "Jo" and the pronunciation of "Own" (in English) and here you have a quite a good pronunciation for João.
Thanks Dr. Abramson!
Thank you for supporting the research!
This is my ancestor. :) :) :) I am a Nassi who's great grandma was a Turk that was a direct descendant on Dona Gracia. We pass it on through oral tradition, and the fact that my great grandma only spoke Ladino. :D so proud of my great (x8) grandmother! :D
Your name is portuguese.
yes on my fathers side. And?
Good. I am portuguese.
Dona Gracia did not have any grandchildren, and neither did her only sibling. How exactly are you her direct descendant?
I guess I misspoke but what I wanted to say is that we shared the same close family. It isn't true that all her relatives had no descendants. There is a sizable Nassi family and was always a small Jewish community in Turkey who spoke Ladino and only married each other. There is a huge possibility as this theory was obtained by a family member who taught at university.
Thank you for making these lectures available.
Amazing story an excellent lecture. This is one story I knew nothing about. This will motivate me to read more about this amazing woman. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@HenryAbramsonPhD Have you ever done a lecture on Napoleon and the Jews? I think that is a fascinating subject.
Brillant and engaging presentation. Congratulations
Thank you for your kind words! I appreciate the feedback
Such an inspiring lecture, my favourite so far. One to save and re-watch.
Thanks for your
This was most informational on La Senora Gracia Nasi. I was researching Judaism...bible history, etc. My coming upon her was due to a picture of her that I suddenly came across in my search at the time....was not searching for her actually yet the picture just came up on my screen and I was taken aback. I'm not sure if this is actually how she looked since it is a sketch of her, but I look just like her in that sketch. Either way, I want to thank you for the very detailed account of her. PS King Joao [King Manuel] pronounced joaw not hoaw is actually a common name more used in Mexico-thought I throw that in.
Henry Abramson You're Welcome.
Fascinating Sephardic history thank you Professor Abramson. I wish your videographer would make a stronger effort to catch what the slides actually say so that us viewers on social media can actually take notes by looking at the slides. He sort of follows professor Abramson around and almost totally disregards the slides.
Thanks! We had a substitute videographer that evening.
Very recommendable! I wish the lecturer had talked more about Dona Gracia Nasi herself than about many other things
Amazing story. Thanks for presenting the fruits of your research!
Ieyieheiyeyieeyieeiyiey
Read a few books about this wonderful Lady.Went to the little museum to ber in Tiberias Israel 🌷🌷
Thank you for the video. My grandparents would tell us such stories of struggle and resilience. I wish a movie would be made of such stories of Jews of that time.Can you imagen , it must of been hell on earth.
Thanks for another fascinating lecture that I just saw for the first time, about a Jewish figure I previously knew nothing about. I'd appreciate if you have any details regarding the dispute that you alluded to between the Mabit and Beis Yosef, how they came to debate this question (as they were presumably in Turkey at the time, and where this appears in the published responsa from one or both of them.
Vale a pena ler os comentários. Gracia Nasi, nascida Beatriz de La Luna nome cristão de solteira, Mendes pelo casamento com um tio, nasceu em Lisboa, enviuvou cedo, tendo herdado uma enorme fortuna; teve de sair de Portugal, para fugir da inquisição, percorreu a europa do século XVI, até conseguir finalmente chegar a Constantinopla, actual Istambul onde por fim pôde usar abertamente o seu nome hebraico. Há poucos factos conhecidos sobre esta mulher, que era conhecida como "a senhora", mas os que há têm excitado a imaginação fazendo correr rios de tinta. Como diz o pessoal que fala inglês, "amazing".
being a sephardim from the Caribbean islands we truly understand the impact the inquisition had on the judaism of generations that did re connect with their Co religionists generations later.
My family came to peru from europe. my grandfather is called emilio nasi, he came from italy. And I think I am a descendant of grace because as I know the history of my family were from Portugal
I'm also a descendent from her cousin in Venice, Italy. It's strange to see people interested in this story.
Superb video -- thank you.
Fascinating, what happened to her daughter?
Well done thank you
Thanks again!
I'm also one of her descendents! Thank you for posting this!
But... neither her daughter nor niece had descendants...
bostonpatriot1 cousins. So not direct.
Halellu-ya !
@@bostonpatriot613through her cousin, Elena de Nazi.
amazing portuguese woman !!! human rights forever beijo grande de Lisboa !! :)
Question for Dr. Abramson: Are there any extant primary or secondary sources revealing details of Dona Gracia's childhood? Thank you.
One daochter named A'na.
Fascinating!
In the Bible translation, the picture with the boat also portraits an " armilar sphere", next to the wind blowing. It is the symbol of global Portuguese domination which is still present in modern national flag of Portugal.
By the way, it is King João, not Joao. The J is not spelled like in Spanish but closer to English pronounciation -and Ladino accent-and the "wave" above it is spelled like "an" in french. Something closer to Joan than to Juan.
Excelent lecture!!!!
I first knew hers history from the book "A Senhora" of Catherine Clément.
Thank you for the remarkable lecture!! And thank you for trying to speak João (in Portuguese) - it was very funny. But the accured pronunciation wold be: translate.google.com.br/#pt/en/Jo%C3%A3o (hit the listen button in the Portuguese side).
Can’t tell if this was in my high school Flatbush or across the street in toro
Gracia is an ancestor of mine
Nice
Wow this answered my question about a family tradition my grandmother broke in the 1940's!! woa! amazing!!
***** well I know that when my grandmother refused to marry her betrothed for a man she loved was a huge deal I have been looking for any sort of clue to finding out why this was a tradition in the first place....I am able to trace both families to the same traditions in Spain marry to the same families same names through many generations....I knew of course about the inquisition and many things I find are disturbing, converts torturing non converso and I get very lost in all the information so I pick a couple of family tradition to research and lighten the mood a bit! I found not one clue of the tradition and its origin until watching this video! tracing the families to places like Tudela and Cantabria. I do not know anything about Sephardic traditions but I am learning! one reason I asked about Miera, Mier Meir is because I find nothing in Santander but I found a stele in the town with Meir written on it ...so the mystery continues as for Pacheco I know for sure they are of converso crypto so I hypothesized that they would only be marry another family of the same maybe. I am learning it's hard to put everything into word I have found so much and I just want to learn more of who I am if I am then how do I learn the faith and so on it's very exciting!
***** I started searching for my family and I believe I am Sephardic I have lost most all tradition mother moved us from NM and stopped speaking Spanish and tried to keep us away from what idk but that is another story what I would like to know is what if I am and what I looked for for so long and now I don't know what to do ....have a varied religious background of many influences but when I started two years ago to follow the Torah to the best of my ability and not knowing how I have stumbled through the best I can with no direction to what I must do. I have lost many friend who says I am being wierd to keep the Sabbath and now giving up these thing like xmas with not much understanding from others I trudge on learning and knowing that is what I must do! If you know of a Sephardic teaching support in MO or anyplace I would be very grateful. I have looked but I don't know
Shalom, Dragonfly, have you tried finding a chabad emissary in your area? They're very helpful
chodeshadar18 I don't have one near me but am visiting an area that I believe does, do you think it's still an option for me as it's in a different state? Shalom and thank you
I also noticed you said there were Benvenistes in South Florida. Funny is I'm from South Florida. :)
+Henry Abramson West Kendall for me, even though I live in Scotland now.
Isn't there an area in Florida called Almeida or Alameida?
i am nasi!!! moshe nasi!!!!! forever giving forever defying kings and governments
do you know anything about the de luna/nasi marriage into the mizrahi rabbinical family? We are also related and I’m trying to track exactly through who. We have De Luna but not her first name. And Dona’s moves to all the places but Antwerp, match our families’ moves and timelines
Excellent.
Thank you.
Welcome!
wow the senora inspires me every day with her resilience
I have just linked up via Ancestry DNA to a group of 76 Mexicans Who all descend from the same Expelled Sephardic Jew from the 15th Century. I never knew of this person till now.
Wow, that is so interesting.
Didn’t Gracia’s daughter in law Clara die in the Mexican inquisition?
Not sure
Judaizing doesn't primarily refer to the secret practice of ritual rites among phony converts. It refers primarily to those who want to influence Christian doctrine to make it resemble Judaism.
Watch Abelard Reuchlin.
Gracia Nasi is a huuuuuge heroine of the Jewish world
Avraam, Cohen or Levy are common Sephardic surnames. Benveniste is not a common Sephardic surname. There are 37 people by the surname Benveniste listed in the Florida white pages, while there are 8,920 by the surname of Levy.
Benveniste is a well known Sephardic because of its history. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benveniste) It dates back to a noble family in the 11 th century. Assuming a generation spans 30 years (average age of a male when fathering children), and assuming also that 1.3 sons on the average survive to child producing age, a bit over 2,500 families would have the surname Benveniste today. It is reasonable for 37 of them to live in Florida.
mi antepasado!
i wish all the nasi klan is well and i am a infiltrator a rebel a sefardi
one of my descendents from my mothers side
She had to leave Portugal because of her faith, but dont forget she also had to thank for Portugal for her huge fortune. Nevertheless , we are sorry she had to leave.
She made her fortune only because she passed as Christian and despite the attempts of Portugal's regent's attempts to get at that fortune.
Jorge Gomez what a bullshit post
Stupid post dude.
@@bostonpatriot613 she made most of all of her fortun from all over Europe after she left Portugal
❤❤❤
Is the name Barao a Jewish name?
Henry Abramson OK thankyou for your reply. My maternal family always said we had Jewish ancestry. My sons DNA results came back 2% Sephardic Jewish, so I wondered about this surname. I think in English translate to baron.
It's "Dona" not "Doña"; it's "Miques/Micas/Migas" not "Miquez"; "Mendes" is incorrectly pronounced; in portuguese the letter "J" is read like in englsih, not "rota" as in castillian; No one pronounced "João" remotely correct; thankfully someone knew there are not Comodo Dragons in the island of São Tomé; Spain didn't exist yet at that time; etc
Rabbi thank you have the same project \
Glad you enjoyed it! Not a Rabbi, just a regular guy.
she's my 13th GG
If neither she nor her niece had descendants...?
I would appreciate a lecture on why Jews treat other Jews so badly if the marry outside the Faith, or take on non traditional " Jewish" professions, why they are so opinionated about things they've only read about, or why Jewish people manage to exclude anyone else from having inventiveness.
What occurred in Spain will repeat in the U S. the reasoning will be different but the outcome will be expulsion. Most Americans Are anti - Semitic.
Mr. Schek, you ask why we treat badly other Jews who intermarry and generally leave the community? My answer is, why should you expect respect from those who you have abandoned? As for "excluding" inventiveness, well, as an artist I know what you mean, but I have enough introspection to see that I often let my and imagination & intuition guide me into false paths, because I lacked the intellectual rigor to verify my intuitions.
Most Americans are anti-semitic???
your daugther is close but in portuguese you have to read the J (G) and the rest of the word is done with a nose accent...
Eine Powerfrau im 16. Jahrhundert
She was like the Kim Kardashian of the century back then.
ZERO SURNAMES.....FOR ANYBODY
I love bagels and lox so I’m going to the fire? Isn’t it enough Rabbi that we are mocked and denigrated by ZHU haters? Do you really think this is something to joke about? I’m very disappointed. I will keep listening to the rest of this lecture for my own purposes, but in the future, I hope that you will have a little more sechel and Sensitivity
JOÃO [ʒoˈɐ̃w̃]
MICAS
?
@@HenryAbramsonPhD ola eu sou um descendente??
Yosef Nasi, Joao MIcas, Joao MIqueiz??
🇮🇱
ok