Escamoth, Reglamentos, e Ordenanças para o bom governo da Santa Irmandade Mishenet Zequenim, id est: Bordao dos Velhos, Novamente Istituida nesta cidade Amsterdam, para amparo de Velhos, e Velhas, desvalidos. Amsterdam, 1750. Printed with the permission of the community council.

Booklet containing ordinances of the Mishenet Zekenim society – a home for old men and women associated with the Portuguese Talmud Torah community in Amsterdam. This old age home was one of the earliest known Jewish welfare institutions of its kind.

The Spanish-Portuguese community was established in Amsterdam by an increasing flow of Jews drawn there for its relative religious tolerance and commercial opportunities. The 1579 Union of Utrecht declared that no person would be persecuted or interrogated on religious grounds, which made the city the destination of choice for Marranos from the Iberian Peninsula and southern France who wished to begin practicing Judaism openly. In its early years in the late 16th century, the community was not officially recognized and was forbidden from building a synagogue. Towards the mid-17th century, the city was already home to some 2500 Jews; the small congregations – Neveh Shalom, Beit Yisrael and Beit Yaakov – united in 1639 to form a Sephardic congregation named Talmud Torah, and in 1675, the congregation inaugurated its magnificent synagogue, the Esnoga, active to this day. The elite of the Sephardic society contributed much to the economy of the city and to Dutch colonization efforts, and the great benefit they brought to the city led the authorities to grant the community extensive freedom and autonomous rights. The members of the community became prominent physicians, philosophers, poets and rabbis. Amsterdam was one of the prominent printing centers in Europe, and was home to Jewish printers renowned for their high standards of work.

[6]; 9, [1] pages. 19.5 cm. Good condition. Colorful wrapper; light wear to wrapper.

PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.