jewish woman of the day: doña gracia nasi (also known as gracia mendes nasi, la señora and her christianized name, beatrice de luna).
born in lisbon, in 1510, doña gracia’s both parents belonged to powerful converso families whose histories and destinies were one. in 1492, they were part of a group of six hundred wealthy spanish jewish families who obtained permission to enter and settle in portugal for an indefinite period. forcibly converted in portugal during the terrible events of 1497, gracia’s paternal family adopted the christian surname "de luna", while the benevistes chose the name "mendes" and like thousands of other converts, they began to live as secret jews, trying to preserve their religion and identity, despite constant persecution.
after being baptized, she was given the name beatrice de luna but it was tradition for jewish converts to be given jewish names to distinguish them, hence her given name gracia.
her people called her "ha-guiveret" and she longed to live in a place where she did not have to hide her jewishness. perhaps it was because of this as well as her great attachment to judaism, she would lead a zionist life (or proto-zionist as some would say).
as a businesswoman, she managed an enormous company of trading ships that sailed across the globe, carrying spices, silver, and jews fleeing the spanish inquisition. doña gracia defied expectations by living openly as a jew while dressed at the height of contemporary fashion, confronting kings, emperors, popes, and sultans to advance the causes of the jewish people.
she would become one of the richest women in the world and on some accounts, the richest woman of the world. she used her wealth and resources to help jews, for example she made an underground network to allow crypto-jews to escape spain and portugal. her both families de luna and mendes worked together to transport jewish fugitives on their ships. once the crypto-jews arrived in antwerp, doña gracia provided instructions and money to cross the treacherous range of the alps to the port city of venice. from there, transportation was arranged to bring them to the ottoman empire – including the holy land of israel.
doña gracia, the steward of immense wealth, was now a target. claims of judaizing were brought against her dead husband francisco mendes in the hopes of draining her money, and she was forced to pay a large bribe to the holy roman emperor charles v. considering the many suitors, who, with an eye to the family’s affluence, aggressively sought to marry ana, doña gracia decided to relocate to venice in 1544. the family did not live in the jewishw ghetto, and instead maintained a catholic pretense while living among the upper class along the grand canal.
doña gracia relocated to ferrera in 1549 where, for the first time, she and her family could live openly as jews. in ferrera, beatrice assumed her jewish name: doña gracia nasi. doña is a spanish honorific reserved for nobility, gracia is the spanish equivalent of chana, and her new surname, nasi, alluded to the biblical title that connoted royalty and political leadership. a nasi, or prince, represents the jewishw people in communal, legal, financial, and political aspects of life, and doña gracia nasi was the only woman for whom there is evidence that this title was used. in keeping with this title, even after openly reclaiming her judaism, doña gracia did not submit to the sumptuary laws that restricted the clothing jews were allowed to wear, and continued to dress fashionably in the high style of living to which she was accustomed.
in the spring of 1553, gracia nasi moved from venice to constantinople, the capital of the ottoman empire. she continued to aid refugees fleeing Iberia, freed jewish slaves captured by pirates, and established a yeshivah colloquially called “the academy of the giveret” and a synagogue named “the synagogue of the señora.” she organized the boycott of the popular trading port anacona in 1556 after the papal mistreatment of portuguese jews living there – two dozen of whom were burned at the stake. in her own home, a palace, she hosted meals that served nearly a hundred hungry people every day, in addition to supporting, in istanbul, a home for the poor and sick. she also founded schools throughout the ottoman empire, encouraged jewish education, and subsidized book publishing. she became a patron of istanbul's religious life, as well as founding synagogues and yeshivot in the most important cities of the empire.
her heart, however, was always focused on the land of israel. in the 1560s, gracia nasi and her nephew, joseph nasi, who served in the sultan’s court, sought to establish a settlement in tiberias with the goal of creating a place of refuge for jews. sultan suleiman granted joseph nasi permission to settle tiberias, and by 1566, a thriving community of jews were living there. doña gracia nasi even reinterred the remains of her deceased parents and husband from portugal to israel. though the settlement she helped to build in tiberias dwindled to only a few remaining families, she still left her mark in the effort to bring jews back to the land of israel which was quite successful then and of course now. today the doña gracia hotel and museum is located in tiberias, welcoming visitors to the land to which she yearned to return.
doña gracia nasi died in 1569. after her passing, the famous poet sa’adiah longo wrote an ode to commemorate her called “doña gracia of the house of nasi,” comparing the pain of her loss to the pain felt for the destruction of the temples on tisha b’av.
