Jewish History: The Apostates (Part 1/2: Classical & Medieval)

While rebellion against the divine features in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), the phenomenon of Jewish apostasy arose in earnest only post-biblically in the Hellenistic period, particularly during the Hasmonean era, when Greek civilization predominated and its culture allured an elite minority unfaithful to their ancestral ways—the infamous party of Hellenists (mityavvenim). These faithless renegades caused severe distress to the Jewish masses, whose foreign adversaries they aided and abetted. Indeed, the Maccabean Rebellion (167–134 BCE) was partly a civil war between Hellenists and traditionalist Jews.

During the Roman era, Jewish philosopher Philo Judaeus (Philo of Alexandria) wrote on the matter that “those who forsake the holy laws of God, the apostates, are intemperate, shameless, unjust, friends of falsehood and perjury, ready to sell their freedom for pleasures of the belly, bringing ruin upon body and soul.”

In the ensuing millennia, there were multiple times when Jewries were compelled to forsake their faith and repudiate their people for the sake of survival; such Jews were often victims of persecution and oppression, and many of them converted outwardly (most commonly to Christianity or Islam) while privately observing Judaism. The classic example of this subphenomenon is Sephardic Jewry in the late Middle Ages, many of whom under intense pressure from the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish monarchy became conversos lost to Catholicism but many of whom became crypto-Jews, i.e., Jewish converts to Christianity who secretly practiced Judaism (anusim).

Periodically, however, there have also been individuals impelled to leave the fold and (in most cases) convert to another faith of their own volition, either in accordance with their convictions or, more commonly, to improve their prospects by joining their society’s gentile majority. For some, in fact, apostasy was merely a social formality. From the outset and for the most part, the apostates evinced a desire to number among the dominant majority and to meliorate their social and legal status. Careerism and escape from persecution—going from the persecuted to the persecuting—motivated most apostates across the ages. For this reason it was formerly customary to recite Isaiah 49:17 (“…those who destroy you and those who lay you waste shall go forth from you”) upon encountering an apostate.

A late and controversial Jewish tradition (ascribed to the famous righteous proselyte known as the Geir Tzeddek of Vilna) maintains that a tiny minority of individuals among the Israelites rejected the Torah, and that Jewish apostates descend from these isolated dissenters.

What follows is a survey of historically significant Jewish apostates—notorious personages always fascinating and oftentimes infuriating—dating from the classical to the modern eras:

The Classical Era

Jason (Joshua), son of Shimon II and brother of Honya III, was high priest for three years. It is notable that a son of Shimon HaTzaddik could have turned out so irreligious and corrupt (and it serves perhaps as a belated argument in favor of Shimon I’s identification as Shimon HaTzaddik). Still, Jewish history is replete with wayward sons of righteous fathers. When Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria assumed the Seleucid throne, the Hellenizing and ambitious Jason successfully bribed the new ruler for the high priesthood, and began turning Jerusalem into a Greek polis with a gymnasium and ephebeum. Jason was in turn unseated by chief administrator of the Temple Shimon the Benjaminite’s brother, Menelaus, who offered an even larger bribe for the office. According to II Maccabees, “Jason did not realize that success against one’s own people is the worst kind of failure. He even considered his success a victory over enemies, rather than a defeat of his own people.” Jason unsuccessfully attempted to seize control again of Jerusalem, and after fomenting a massacre of its residents he was forced to flee to Ammon, where he was briefly imprisoned by King Harith (Aretas) I of Nabatea, then wandered from country to country, dying a fugitive in a foreign land.

A Benjaminite, Menelaus was high priest for 10 years. Sent by Jason to pay the annual tribute to Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria, Menelaus returned to Jerusalem with the high priesthood secured for himself. He never paid the promised bribes to the Seleucids (Syrian Greeks), but sold gold objects from the Temple to Tzur (Tyre) and other cities and presented them to Andronicus, a Seleucid high official, who murdered Honya III at Menelaus’ behest. Following another Temple robbery by his brother Lysimachus, who was slain by a mob, Menelaus was put on trial for his misconduct but again bribed his way to success and was acquitted. When Antiochus attacked Jerusalem, Menelaus guided him into the Temple to plunder its riches. According to II Maccabees, “he had the temper of a cruel tyrant and could be as fierce as a wild animal…. He grew more evil every day and became the worst enemy of his own people.” He was at last put to death by Emperor Antiochus V Eupator of Syria in Berea (Aleppo), where he was hurled to his death inside a tower with a floor of ashes.

Alcimus (Elyakim), a Hellenist priest and an enemy of Judah Maccabee, was high priest for three years. He was appointed by Emperor Demetrius I Soter of Syria and installed into office by Seleucid general Bacchides, who supplied him with a garrison before returning to Syria. Alcimus pledged peace to the pious Hassideans who solicited him, but betrayed his word and arrested and had crucified 60 rabbis on the same day (including his uncle and the nasi of the Great Sanhedrin, Yosi ben Yo’ezer). The Maccabees grew too powerful for Alcimus to maintain his office, so another general, Nicanor, was dispatched from Syria to aid him, but Nicanor died in battle against Judah. Bacchides then returned and defeated Judah at Elasah. Alcimus ordered the Temple’s inner court wall torn down, but just as the work began he suffered a paralyzing stroke and soon died in great torment. After Alcimus’ decease the office of the high priesthood was vacant for seven years.

A disciple of Gamliel I the Elder, Saul of Tarsus (Paul the Apostle) (c. 4 BCE–64 CE) was a native of Tarsus (Turkey). He was a Benjaminite originally named Saul, a diasporic Jew from the Cilicia region of Asia Minor who spoke Aramaic and Greek and became a tentmaker by profession and a member of the popular Pharisaic sect. For reasons unspecified, he spent much of the first half of his life persecuting members of the nascent Christian sect, probably by frequenting synagogues and urging their punishment, perhaps by means of ostracism or light flogging. Around 33 CE, while en route to Damascus, Syria, he reportedly experienced an epiphany wherein he was blinded by a bright light and beheld a vision of a resurrected Jesus of Nazareth, who commissioned him to become his apostle to the gentiles. This revelation convinced Paul that Jesus dwelt in heaven, and was both the son of God and Messiah. Three days later his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus, and he arose and was baptized. After three years in Damascus, he went to Jerusalem to meet Jesus’ leading disciples, who had known him during his lifetime. Thenceforth he adopted the vocation of bringing the “good news” to the non-Jewish world, and began evangelizing pagan gentiles—polytheists and idolaters—in Syria, Cyprus, and Cilicia. He sermonized in public gathering places, but conceded that he was not an eloquent orator, and his usual preaching method may have been simply striking up conversations with locals while earning his livelihood as an artisan engaged in leatherwork. He was active and zealous as a missionary from the mid-30s and founded churches in Asia Minor and in Europe, including at Corinth, Greece. He believed that Jesus’ demise constituted a voluntary sacrifice that reconciled sinners with God, and asserted that gentiles, by the grace of God, gained salvation through faith alone, not by works of the Law (i.e., the observance of Jewish ritual laws, which distinguished Jew from gentile), thereby negating the need for converts to Christianity to first become Jews. Thus he became the founder of Christianity as a discrete religion apart from Judaism. His passionate absolutism and masterful polemics proved attractive and persuasive to numerous non-Jews. Certain of his teachings, however, conflicted with those of the earlier apostles, based in Jerusalem. Around 49, he returned to the Holy City—for what became known as the Council of Jerusalem—to strike a bargain with the other apostles (including Peter, James, and John) regarding the disputed matter of male circumcision and to delineate their distinct jurisdictions: Paul agreed to fundraise for the Jerusalem church and they mutually agreed not to interfere in each other’s spheres of influence. In 57, he returned to Jerusalem with the funds he had collected and some gentile converts, but was soon arrested for bringing a gentile into proscribed Temple precincts, thereby defiling the sanctuary, and was interrogated repeatedly and incarcerated for two years in Caesarea (Caesarea Maritima) before being dispatched to Rome, Italy, the then capital of the Roman Empire. He indited at least seven of the 14 texts traditionally ascribed to him (the others being composed by his followers writing in his name): 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Philemon, Philippians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, and Romans. He is believed to have been martyred during Emperor Nero’s executions of Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in 64, with several accounts stating that he was beheaded then buried beyond the city walls in the Ostian Way. The former Saul of Tarsus, who became Saint Paul the Apostle, may be deemed the Jewish apostate extraordinaire.

Tiberius Julius Alexander (c. 14/16–80? CE) was the son of Alexander Lysimachus (Jewish alabarch of Egypt), and nephew of Philo Judaeus. A native of Alexandria, Egypt, he was born into one of the leading Jewish families in the Roman East. He studied classical languages and received little traditional Jewish education, and as a young man he entered Roman military service. His younger brother Marcus Julius Alexander became the first husband of Herodian princess Berenika (Berenice) II, daughter of King Agrippa I of Judea. Unlike his pious father and his respected uncle, Tiberius seems to have had little connection to Judaism or to his fellow Jews; per the priestly historian Joseph ben Mattityahu (Flavius Josephus), he “did not continue in the religion of his country”. His impiety is corroborated by his portrayal in two of his uncle’s philosophical dialogues, wherein he controverts divine providence. Although there is no explicit proof that he abjured Judaism per se, his life choices and actions conclusively evidence his abandonment of Jewry and his allegiance to the Romans. In 42, he became military commander and administrator (epistrategos) of the Thebaid (Upper Egypt), a position in which he served for four years. In 46, he became (the second ever) procurator of Judea, a position in which he served for two years. During his tenure, severe famine afflicted Judea and was relieved only through the intervention and benevolence of the Jewish proselytes Queen Helena of Adiabene and her son, prince Monobaz II; too, Tiberius had crucified the sons (Jacob and Shimon) of Judah the Galilean, nationalistic resistance leader and cofounder of the Zealot party, but otherwise kept the country at peace by refraining from interfering in the lifeway of its populace. In 63, he served as staff officer of Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo in his military campaign against the Parthian Empire. In 66, he became prefect of Egypt, a position in which he served for four years. Shortly after his appointment, ethnic violence erupted between Jewish and Greek residents of Alexandria: after issuing an unheeded warning, he unleashed his legions—III Cyrenaica and XXII Deiotariana—upon the rebels, which eventuated in 50,000 slain Jews and the devastation of the city’s Jewish quarter. During the Year of Four Emperors (69 CE), and perhaps at the instigation of his former sister-in-law Berenika (the lover of Vespasian’s son Titus), he secretly corresponded with and acclaimed as emperor Vespasian, an instrumental factor in the latter’s elevation to the position of Caesar. In 69/70, he became chief of staff of and second-in-command to Titus, who was relatively inexperienced in military affairs. He participated in Titus’ war council that debated the fate of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and voted in favor of sparing it from destruction. In the 70s or 80s, he may have become praetorian prefect in Rome. It is believed that he is alluded to, unfavorably, in the anti-Semitic Roman poet Juvenal’s Satires. Some modern academics inclined toward eisegesis have sought to qualify and justify his behavior, to no avail: his recorded conduct overturns any attempt to exonerate him from the accusation of apostasy; whether or not he disavowed Judaism, he deserted Jewry and played a prominent part in its national catastrophe. He is remembered today as an opportunistic traitor who became the highest-ranking Jew in the history of the Roman Empire.

A native of Jerusalem, Elisha ben Avuyah (c. 100 CE) was the son of a wealthy Jerusalemite. Joshua ben Hananiah and Eliezer ben Hyrcanus attended his circumcision (milah) in the Holy City. Elisha was a student of Greek language, poetry, and philosophy, as well as of forbidden books, perhaps heretical works of the Sadducees. Elisha elicited opposition from Akiva ben Joseph, of whom Elisha might have grown envious. He taught: “One who studies Torah as a child is comparable to ink written on fresh paper; one who studies Torah as an old man is comparable to ink written on blotted paper.” This teaching may reflect his defensiveness with regards to Akiva. He also taught that “a man may study for 20 years and forget all his knowledge in two years, such that he could no longer differentiate between the clean and unclean and would confuse the opinions of scholars until finally he would be forced to remain silent.” According to aggadot, after witnessing the deaths of various righteous men, Elisha developed the conviction that there was no reward for virtue either in life or in the afterlife. It was said that upon entering the mystical garden of knowledge (pardeis), Elisha pondered the esoteric mysteries overmuch and cut down the plants of the heavenly garden (i.e., apostatized). Elisha became known as “Aher” (“Another”). Initially, his heresy might have simply been his renunciation of the Pharisees in favor of the Sadducees, although it appears that he ultimately abjured Judaism. After the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE), Elisha visited the Judaic academies and attempted to lure students away from Torah study and redirect them to more worldly pursuits. He acted as an informant during the Hadrianic persecutions, pointing out when Jews attempted to minimize Sabbath desecration. He was haunted by a heavenly voice declaring, “Repent, all lost children, except Aher, for whom there is no repentance.” His disciple Meir Ba’al HaNeis, who continued to study with him even after his loss of faith, visited Elisha on his deathbed in the hope of prompting his master’s penitence (tshuvah). Elisha remained skeptical about his eligibility for forgiveness, but Meir quoted the verse from Psalms, “You return men to contrition and say, ‘Return, children of men’”, whereupon Elisha wept and died. Meir rejoiced, believing that “it appears that he died repenting.” His grandson Jacob also became a Torah scholar.

The Medieval Era

Moses Sephardi (Petrus Alfonsi) (1062–c. 1125 CE) was a native of Huesca (Spain). He studied Talmud, philosophy, astronomy, and medicine, as well as several languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Latin). Thereafter he became royal physician and astrologer of King Alfonso I of Aragon. In 1106, he was baptized and converted to Roman Catholicism in the cathedral of his hometown on St. Peter’s Day, and assumed his Christian name (in honor of the saint and of his royal patron and godfather). Eager to demonstrate his zeal for his new faith, he became a controversialist who engaged in polemics against his former coreligionists and in apologetics on behalf of his current ones. He claimed that the Talmud was composed to keep Jewry from acknowledging that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, and disparaged it as “a fabric of lies” and a “heretical book” in an attempt to discredit its validity as a divinely inspired work. Worst of all, he levelled the charge of deicide against Jewry and alleged that the Jewish priests and sages were deceitful and envious of Jesus. After 1110, he migrated to England, where he became royal physician to King Henry I of England and taught astronomy. He spent time in southwest England (the West Country) before migrating to France, apparently in the 1120s. He indited his masterwork Disciplina Clericalis, an anthology of 33 Oriental apologues translated from Arabic into Latin (which was later retranslated from Latin into English, French, Spanish, and German, and from which pericopes were translated into Hebrew), most of which were incorporated into the Latin anthology Gesta Romanorum (c. 1300) and some of which were incorporated in the famed Arabic anthology Alf Laylah wa-Laylah (One Thousand and One Nights/The Arabian Nights) and in William Caxton’s English translation of Aesop’s Fables; Dialogi in Quibus Impiae Judaeorum et Saracenorum Opiniones Confutantur, a dialogical treatise comprising 12 duologues controverting Jewish and Muslim doctrines (its purported disputants, Mose and Pedro, represent himself pre- and post-conversion) and defending Christianity; and Tabulae astronomicae, a translation from Arabic into Latin of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi’s Zīj as-Sindhind. His fictive dialogues engendered tension, undermined tolerance toward Jews within Christendom, and substantially damaged Judeo-Christian relations in the ensuing centuries. He achieved fame already in his lifetime, and approximately 160 medieval manuscripts of his works are extant. He is remembered today for pioneering medieval anti-Judaic polemics and as a popularizer of eastern fables.

A disciple of Yehiel of Paris, Nicholas Donin (1200s CE) was a native of La Rochelle (France) and studied in neighboring Paris. In 1225, he was placed under a ban of excommunication (heirem) by his master for his heretical beliefs—he had apparently become a Karaite—and his repudiation of the Oral Torah. In 1235, ostracized and embittered after 10 years as an outcast, he was baptized and converted to Roman Catholicism. In 1236, he indited a treatise controverting the Talmud. That same year, he apparently encouraged crusaders in their violent and bloody persecutions of the Jewish communities of Brittany, Poitou, and Anjou, wherein 3,000 Jews were murdered, with another 500 Jews resorting to baptism to save their lives (although his identity in this regard has been disputed). Around 1238, he joined the Franciscan Order as a friar. That same year, he journeyed to Rome, Italy for an audience before Pope Gregory IX, during which he traduced the Talmud. He compiled a list of 35 accusations leveled against the Talmud with regards to its supposed blasphemy (against the divinity of Jesus, the virginity of Mary, and Christianity in general) and immorality, and readily persuaded the pontiff of the merit of his indictment; Gregory IX dispatched to numerous archbishops and western European monarchs transcripts of the charges along with an order to confiscate all copies of the Talmud and deposit them with the Franciscans and Dominicans at their monasteries. The Talmud was to be carefully scrutinized and, if the charges were substantiated, copies of the offensive work were to be consigned to the flames. This papal order was largely disregarded except in France, whose Jews were forced to relinquish their Talmuds on pain of death in 1240. That same year, King Louis IX of France summoned four of French Jewry’s leading sages—Yehiel of Paris, Moses of Coucy (Semag/Ram MiCoucy), Judah ben David of Melun, and Samuel ben Solomon (Sir Morel) of Falaise—to participate in a public dispute versus Nicholas and to defend against his accusations, an infamous event that became known as the Disputation of Paris. From the outset the sages were disadvantaged, proscribed from denying the sanctity of Jesus or Mary and from challenging other central Christian tenets. In the event, two of the sages (Yehiel and Judah) refuted the arraignment of the Talmud, albeit in vain; Nicholas was declared victorious by the presiding Christian officials. Louis IX condemned the Talmud to be burned, and as a result 24 cartloads (10,000–12,000 manuscripts) of Talmuds and Judaic books were burned in Paris in 1242–1244. Nicholas persisted in his anti-Jewish activities for a prolonged period but, captious and recalcitrant as ever, never acclimated to his adopted religion. In 1279, unable to restrain himself, he indited a pamphlet wherein he attacked the Franciscan Order, which condemned him (apparently to death) for it in 1287.

Saul of Montpellier (Pablo Christiani/Paul Christian) (c. 1215–1274 CE) was perhaps a disciple of Eliezer of Tarascon (Tarascon-sur-Rhône, France). A native of neighboring Montpellier, he hailed from a pious Jewish family and received a traditional Talmudic education. He married a Jewish woman and sired children, whom he took from his wife when he forsook her upon converting himself and their children to Roman Catholicism. He soon joined the Dominican Order as a friar. He emulated Nicholas of Donin and sought to have the Talmud banned as an irrational text inimical to Christianity. To that end, he embarked upon a missionary campaign to the Jews of Provence, but to little avail, then redirected his efforts toward Aragonese Jewry. Through the Dominican general Raymond of Peñafort, who obtained the consent of King James I of Aragon, Pablo arranged to challenge the preeminent sage Moses ben Nahman (Ramban/Nahmanides) in a religious controversy in Barcelona, Spain. In 1263, the Disputation of Barcelona took place over four days within the royal palace, in the presence of the royal court and numerous ecclesiastical dignitaries, including leaders of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders. Central to the dispute were the questions of whether Messiah had appeared, whether the prophesied Messiah was divine or human, and whether Jews or Christians possessed the true faith. Woefully outmatched (despite the assistance of the Dominicans Raymond of Peñafort, Raymond Martini, and Arnold de Segarra, and of the Franciscan Peter de Janua), Pablo hoped to profit from the tact and discretion Moses would perforce be compelled to demonstrate for fear of offending and incurring the wrath of church officials in attendance. In the event, Moses moderately yet steadfastly refuted all of Pablo’s arguments and misconstruals of the Talmud and aggadah, and achieved complete victory; James I even awarded him 300 maravedis as a token of his esteem. Undeterred, Pablo obtained (via Raymond of Peñafort) letters of protection from the king and proceeded with his missionary activities to synagogues and other public fora, subjecting Jews to his conversionist sermons and coercing them to respond to his challenges, to little effect. His Jewish audiences were also required to defray the expenses of his evangelical campaign. He traduced the Talmud to Pope Clement IV, averring that it contained several verses derogating Jesus and Mary; in 1264, prompted by the militant mendicant orders, the pontiff issued a bull to the bishop of neighboring Tarragona, instructing him to confiscate all copies of the Talmud and submit them to the careful scrutiny of the Dominicans and Franciscans. Thereafter Pablo was a member of the commission established by James I to expurgate the Talmud. When the Dominicans claimed victory in the disputation, Moses responded by publishing in Hebrew an account of the disputation’s proceedings, Seifer HaVikuah. Pablo obtained a copy of the work, identified passages therein that he deemed blasphemous to Christianity, then denounced these to Raymond of Peñafort. In 1265, a blasphemy charge was instituted against Moses before the court of the Spanish Inquisition and a formal complaint was lodged with the king. While he had been guaranteed immunity in the disputation, Moses was ultimately tried for blasphemy at the instigation of his fanatical Dominican foes, and after the intervention of Clement IV he was sentenced to exile for two years and Seifer HaVikuah was condemned to be burned. In 1269, Pablo interceded with King Louis IX of France to ensure the enforcement of the Fourth Lateran Council’s canonical edict requiring Jews to don an identifying badge (a circle of felt or yellow cloth, stitched upon the outer garment in front and in back). Late in life, he participated in another disputation with Mordekhai ben Joseph of Avignon. He is deemed even more zealous and far-reaching in his anti-Talmudic and anti-Jewish attacks—especially in his efforts to forcibly convert his former coreligionists—than his role model Nicholas Donin.

Perhaps a native of Burgos (Spain), Abner of Burgos (Alfonso of Valladolid) (c. 1260/1270–1347/1348 CE) was born a Sephardic Jew and studied Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and Talmud as well as philosophy and astrology. He became chief rabbi and head of the academy of his hometown, and also earned his livelihood as a book dealer. In 1295, he became a physician and began practicing medicine, though he struggled to make ends meet. That same year, religious doubts troubled him after he treated several Jews for distress following their involvement in a false messianic movement in neighboring Avila. In 1317, he wrote of a revelation he experienced during a dream wherein a figure adjured him to become a “teacher of righteousness” and to liberate his people from their prolonged exile; three years later, he experienced the same revelation in a second dream and this time noticed the figure’s attire featured crosses like the crucifix of Jesus of Nazareth. In 1320/1321, after decades of ambivalence, he finally converted to Roman Catholicism and was rewarded with a lucrative sacristan’s post in the Collegiate Church in neighboring Valladolid, where he assumed his Christian name. He indited Igeret HaGzeirah, an epistle justifying his apostasy on the grounds that planetary influence—i.e., astrological predestination—negates free will. His apostasy and defense of determinism generated controversy and engendered tension, including between Abner and his erstwhile student and friend Isaac ben Joseph ibn Pulgar, who responded to his former master’s fatalistic work with a scathing satirical poem. In 1334, Abner wrote the Jews of neighboring Toledo and accused them of miscalculating the date of the Passover festival. He calumniated his former coreligionists as a whole to King Alfonso XI of Castile, accusing Jewry of blaspheming Jesus and execrating Christians during their liturgy by reciting the “Birkat HaMinim” benediction, part of the “Amidah” prayer formulated a millennium earlier during the Roman era. Around 1335, the king ordered an investigation, which included a public disputation between Abner and representatives of Valladolid’s Jewish community; in the event, Abner apparently triumphed. In 1336, a royal edict was issued proscribing recitation of the controversial benediction. This proved a hollow victory, however, prompting Abner to further vilify Jews. He also composed Moreh Tzeddek (Mostrador de Justicia), Minhat Knaot, Libro de la Ley, Tshuvot HaMshuvot, and Tshuvot LaM’haref, anti-Judaic polemics written in Hebrew, unlike the works of most Christian controversialists (some of his works were later translated into Castilian either by him or under his supervision). He further wrote La Concordia de las Leyes, a treatise attempting to identify sources in the Tanakh for Christian dogmas. His philosophy concentrated on determinism, the Christian trinity, and incarnation. Jewish philosopher and physician Moses ben Joshua of Narbonne (Moses Narboni), in his essay Ma’amar BiB’hirah, refuted Abner’s views concerning free will. In his literary attacks, Abner also alleged that Jews were sectaries prone to schism, inimical to and constantly warring with one another, and rehearsed earlier Karaitic and rationalistic criticisms of the Talmud. He proposed harsh measures to coerce Jews to convert to Christianity, including conversionist preaching, segregation (ghettoization), and even mob violence; his proposals may well have contributed to the Catholic pogroms against Spanish Jewry in 1391 (Gzeirot Kana). He believed that from a Christian perspective Muslims were implicitly superior to Jews because at least they accepted and venerated Jesus and Mary within their religious tradition. His oeuvre served as source material for subsequent Christian polemicists in Spain, and he is credited with influencing the philosophy of the eminent sage Hasdai ben Abraham Cresques and, through him, of Barukh Spinoza. His name remains a curse in the annals of the Jewish people, among whom he earned the epithet “Father of Darkness” (a pun on his Hebrew name Avner, which can be translated as “Father of Light”).

John of Valladolid (1335–? CE) was born a Sephardic Jew. He studied rabbinics and became a capable orator. Overconfident in his rhetorical and polemical abilities, he assured King Henry II of Castile that he could convince Castilian Jewry of the veracity of Christianity, provided that they were obligated to listen to him and to respond to his questions. Thereafter a royal edict was issued compelling Jews to attend and to discuss his discourses in their synagogues. John’s campaign met with abject failure. In 1372/1375, he assembled the Jewish community of Avila (Spain) for four debates between himself and Moses HaKohen of Tordesillas, chief rabbi of Avila, before Christian and Muslim spectators. Moses easily refuted John’s attempts to prove the Christian dogmas by means of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and emerged triumphant. They met for a rematch in neighboring Burgos, where they disputed before Archbishop Gomez of Toledo. There is no evidence John fared any better this time around, and indeed little else is known about him. For his part, Moses was subsequently obliged to engage in another dispute, with a disciple of Abner of Burgos, and at the behest of his community he later committed to writing the substance of his arguments in his dialogical Eizer HaEmmunah.

A native of Burgos (Spain), Solomon HaLevi (Pablo Garcia de Santa Maria/Paul of Burgos) (c. 1351/1352–1435 CE) was born into an affluent family of tax-farmers and financiers originally from Aragon. He studied Talmud and rabbinics, as well as Latin and philosophy, especially the works of Thomas Aquinas and Abner of Burgos. At 26, he married Juana/Joanna, daughter of Joseph Benveniste. In 1379, he became chief rabbi of his hometown. In the 1380s, he corresponded with Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet on matters of halakhah. He delved into Christian scholastic literature and became perplexed by questions of faith; he was also troubled by the alarming increase in anti-Jewish sentiments among the gentile majority. In 1388/1389, he was dispatched as a member of a delegation representing the Castilian royal court to the English possession of Aquitaine (France), where he was abducted as a political hostage before being incarcerated in a dungeon in London, England. While in durance, during the Purim festival, he composed in Hebrew an epistle featuring a 24-stanza poem that he sent to his friend and patron Meir Alguadez, chief rabbi of Castile and royal physician to successive Castilian kings. After the Catholic pogroms against Spanish Jewry in 1391 (Gzeirot Kana), he assembled his Jewish community to explain his doctrinal views and the dire situation facing Sephardic Jewry, and invited his fellow Jews to join him in abjuring Judaism; he was subsequently baptized and converted to Roman Catholicism in his hometown, where he assumed his Christian name. His brothers, sister, and children (four sons and a daughter) also converted, but his wife refused to follow his example: scholars dispute whether she remained faithful to Judaism for the rest of her life or merely refused apostasy at first before relenting and accepting baptism a few years later. That same year, he moved to Paris, France, where he lived for three years, earned a doctorate in theology from University of Paris (the Sorbonne), and was ordained a priest. In 1394, at the behest of his friend Pedro de Luna, the newly elected antipope Benedict XIII, he moved to neighboring Avignon, where he performed important tasks in the curia. In 1396/1398, he became archdeacon of Treviño (Spain). In 1403, he became bishop of neighboring Cartagena, a position in which he served for 12 years. In 1406, he was appointed keeper of the royal seal by King Henry III of Castile, who in his will also designated him tutor of his son Juan/John. That same year, following the enactment of a law permitting Jews to revert to Judaism, his children Todros and Beatrice did just that. In 1407, he became chancellor of Castile. He also became a member of the regency council that governed Castile on behalf of the widowed regent Queen Catalina (Catherine of Lancaster). Pablo became a staunch opponent of Judaism and endeavored to convert his former coreligionists, often with success. Along with his disciple and fellow convert Joshua Lorki (Gerónimo de Santa Fe), he was actively involved in proselytizing Sephardic Jewry and resorted to ruthless measures to compel the conversion of Sephardim, thereby embittering their lives. In 1412, an edict he drafted for the purpose of converting Jews was passed into law; its 24 articles were designed to denigrate and segregate (ghettoize) Jews, deprive Jews of their communal rights, disrupt Jewish commerce, and expose Jews to the contempt of their neighbors, thus leaving them with the options of death by privation or apostasy. In 1413–1414, Pablo and Gerónimo challenged about 20 Jewish disputants, including leading sages Joseph Albo, Astruc HaLevi, and Zerahiah HaLevi, during the Disputation of Tortosa, which was conducted in the presence of Benedict XIII and numerous bishops and cardinals and which lasted 21 months. In 1415, he became bishop of his hometown. In 1416, he retired from the royal court for political reasons and focused on performing his religious duties. He indited Dialogus Pauli et Sauli Contra Judaeos, sive Scrutinium Scripturarum, a dialogical polemic; Additiones ad postillam Magistri Nicolai Lyra, addenda to Nicholas of Lyra’s biblical postils; Las Siete edades del Mundo or Edades trovadas, a historical poem; Suma de las crónicas del mundo, a history of Spain from antiquity until 1412; and a book on his origins and genealogy. He became titular archbishop of Philippi (Greece) in Macedonia two months before his decease in his hometown. His son Alonso succeeded him as bishop of Burgos.

Joshua Lorki (Gerónimo de Santa Fe) (c. 1400–1440 CE) was a disciple of Solomon HaLevi. A native of Lorca (Spain), he studied Talmud and rabbinics in neighboring Alcañiz, and later learned the science of medicine. He earned his livelihood as a physician. Scholars dispute whether he apostatized before or after Dominican friar Vicente Ferrer preached conversionist sermons in his hometown. In any event, he was profoundly influenced by the apostasy of his master (renamed Pablo Garcia de Santa Maria), whose letter to Joseph Orabuena, chief rabbi of Navarre, concerning the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies through Jesus of Nazareth deeply impressed him. He wrote to his master analyzing the causes of his conversion and disclosing his own doubts in the Jewish faith. Around 1412, he was baptized and converted to Roman Catholicism, and assumed his Christian name (Gerónimo de Santa Fe in Spanish/Hieronymus de Sancta Fide in Latin). Thereafter, imbued with the convert’s zeal, he became an implacable adversary of his former coreligionists, for which he earned the epithet “Miggadeif” (“The Blasphemer”), a Hebrew acronymic appellation derived from “Maestro Gerónimo de [Santa] Fe”. He determined to evidence by means of the Talmud that Messiah had already come in the person of Jesus, and to that end induced antipope Benedict XIII (whose service he had entered post-baptism) to organize a public dispute with, as it turned out, prominent members of Aragonese and Catalonian Jewry. In 1413–1414, Gerónimo and Pablo challenged about 20 Jewish disputants, including leading sages Joseph Albo, Astruc HaLevi, and Zerahiah HaLevi, during the Disputation of Tortosa, which was conducted in the presence of Benedict XIII and numerous bishops and cardinals and which lasted 21 months. From the outset the Jewish disputants were disadvantaged by intimidation and threats of heresy accusations. He claimed victory in the disputation, which comprised 69 sessions, and subsequently traveled widely attempting to proselytize Sephardic Jewry. In 1415, a papal bull was issued proscribing Talmud study and inflicting degradation upon the Jews. Benedict XIII instructed that all Talmud copies be surrendered to church functionaries for censorship. He indited Tractatus Contra Perfidiam Judaeorum and De Judaeis Erroribus ex Talmuth (published together as Hebraeomastix, and translated into Spanish as Azote de los Hebreos), polemics levelling accusations against the Jewish people. These articles were used during the disputation and later controverted in Vidal Benveniste’s Kodesh HaKdoshim and in Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus’ Tokhahat Matteh. He had three sons, Pedro, Francisco, and Andrea: his son Pedro became a favorite of Queen Maria of Castile; his son Francisco was implicated in the assassination of the Catholic priest and Spanish Inquisition official Pedro de Arbués in La Seo Cathedral in neighboring Zaragoza in 1485, was arrested with other conversos, and committed suicide in prison to avoid being burned alive (his corpse was publicly burned and his ashes were tossed into the Ebro River in 1486); and his son Andrea fled Spain with his own son around the period of the expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492 but soon died in Crespano del Grappa (Italy). Additional members of the family were later burned as conversos in 1497 and 1499.

A relative of Andrés Cabrera, steward of Henry IV of Castile, and of the former’s wife, Beatriz de Bobadilla, the lady of Queen Isabella I of Castile, Abraham Senior (c. 1412/1422–1493/1500 CE) was a native of Segovia, Spain. He became noted for his intelligence and financial acumen. In 1469, he arranged the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. In 1473, he facilitated the reconciliation of Isabella I and her estranged brother King Henry IV of Castile. As a wealthy aristocrat, he became a favorite of the Spanish royalty and nobility, and received a life pension from the queen as well as a portion of the revenues he helped collect in Toledo. In 1487, when Jews were among the captives of the Spanish army in neighboring Malaga, he helped raise their ransom and secure their release. In 1488, he became treasurer of the Santa Hermandad, a brotherhood serving as a military peacekeeping association. He was appointed “Rab de la Corte” (“Court Rabbi”), despite being unqualified for such a position, and chief tax farmer, in which vocation he collaborated with his younger friend, the sage and financier Isaac Abravanel. In his capacity as factor-general, he rendered invaluable services in provisioning the Spanish army in its war against the Moors of the Emirate of Granada. He and Abravanel supported the seafarer Christopher Columbus in his effort to obtain royal patronage from Isabella I for his proposed voyage of discovery. In 1492, after the Jewish expulsion from Spain was decreed, he and Abravanel promptly entreated the queen to rescind the expulsion edict, to no avail. Instead, at 70 or 80 Abraham succumbed to the pressure of the royals’ request to apostatize and, with the sponsorship of the monarchs and the Spanish primate, he and his family, including his rabbinical son-in-law Meir Melamed, were baptized and converted to Roman Catholicism later that year in neighboring Guadalupe, where he assumed the new name of Fernando Perez Nuñez Coronel. He soon became one of the rulers of Segovia, a member of the Royal Council, and chief financial officer of Prince Juan. In spite of staying behind, Abraham financially assisted expelled Jews departing Spain. He had two sons, David (Juan) and Inigo, and two daughters, Reyna and Constança.

Johannes (Joseph) Pfefferkorn (1469–1521 CE) was a disciple of his uncle Meir Pfefferkorn, a religious judge (dayyan) on the rabbinical court (beit din) of Prague (Czech Republic). A native of Moravia (eastern Czech Republic), he was born an Ashkenazic Jew and migrated to Nuremberg (Germany). He apparently earned his livelihood as a butcher. He committed a burglary, for which he was convicted and incarcerated by Count Heinrich von Guttenstein, then was fined and released in 1504. In 1505, he and his family were baptized and converted to Roman Catholicism in neighboring Cologne. Thereafter he became assistant to Jacob van Hoogstraaten, prior of the Dominican Order in Cologne, who wielded him as a willing tool in his persecution of Ashkenazic Jewry. He indited Der Judenspiegel, Die Judenbeicht, Das Osterbuch, Der Judenfeind, and In Lib und Ehren dem Kaiser Maximilian, polemical pamphlets attempting to demonstrate the hostility of Jewish texts to Christianity (the German originals were almost simultaneously translated into Latin). He maintained that: “The causes that hinder the Jews from becoming Christians are three: first, usury; second, because they are not compelled to attend Christian churches to hear the sermons; and third, because they honor the Talmud.” Confronted by Jewish opposition to his polemics, his zealotry increased to the extent that he averred: “Whoever afflicts the Jews is doing the will of God, and whoever seeks their benefit will incur damnation.” In 1509, aided by Kunigunde of Austria, duchess of Bavaria, he obtained from her brother Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I imperial edicts ordering that all Jewish writings subversive of Christianity and all Hebrew books excepting the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) be destroyed. That same year, he began confiscating Jewish books in neighboring Frankfurt and soon German Jews were compelled to relinquish all religious books in their possession; however, they subsequently secured the assistance of the archbishop of neighboring Mayence (Mainz), Uriel von Gemmingen, in persuading the emperor to establish a commission to investigate the accusations against them. In 1510, when Johann Reuchlin reported in favor of the Jews, the emperor suspended his edict against Hebrew books, which were soon returned to their owners. A bitter literary feud ensued within the Catholic Church between the reactionary Dominicans (represented by Johannes) and the liberal Humanists (represented by Reuchlin), during which famed Dutch Christian theologian and priest Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam excoriated Johannes as “a criminal Jew who had become a most criminal Christian.” The pamphleteering battle—now known as the “Jewish Book Controversy” or the “Pfefferkorn-Reuchlin Controversy”—caused a wide rift within the Church. In 1513, the emperor, for his part, had heard enough and imposed silence upon both sides. Despite this, Johannes publicly sermonized against the Jews and Reuchlin, and in 1520 Pope Leo X declared Reuchlin guilty of heresy, eventuating in a Dominican victory that seemed to validate Johannes. In 1521, he also composed Eine Mitleidige Clag Gegen den Ungläubigen Reuchlin, a triumphal panegyric for which its printer (though not its author) was punished with imprisonment. Notably, the imperial edict against Hebrew books was not revived, and the papal verdict did not prevent the printing of the Talmuds, circa 1519–1523, by Dutch Christian printer and publisher Daniel Bomberg. He is remembered today as a treacherous and backward fanatic fundamentally out of touch with his times.