Imagining the Jew in Early Modern England A Presentation on Two Sephardim: Rodrigo Lopez & Menasseh Ben Israel

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:

Imagining the Jew in Early Modern England
A Presentation on Two Sephardim:
Rodrigo Lopez & Menasseh Ben Israel

By Leonard Stein
an ASF Broome & Allen Fellow and Connaught International Doctoral Scholar at the University of Toronto  

Wednesday 10 June at 12PM EDT

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For centuries after their expulsion in 1290, Jews were largely imagined as stereotypes in England. However, two famous Sephardim, one a crypto-Jewish doctor, the other a Portuguese-Dutch rabbi, profoundly influenced the way England thought, wrote, and debated about the readmission of Jews. This presentation will discuss the tragic history of Rodrigo Lopez during the Elizabethan era and the auspicious history of Menasseh Ben Israel during the English Protectorate, in order to understand how crypto-Jews, conversos, and Sephardim inspired a wide range of literary, theological, and political work on the status of the Jew.