Text Panel
Dona Gracia Nasi was born to a family of conversos in Lisbon in 1510. After fleeing the Inquisition in Portugal, she began practicing her Judaism again and built a business empire, initially in Brussels and Venice and later in Istanbul under the aegis of the Sultan. Dona Gracia leveraged her tremendous wealth and global connections for the benefit of her fellow exiles from Spain and Portugal, for whom she founded synagogues and educational institutions. She even persuaded the Sultan to allow her to collect his taxes in the Galilee villages near Tiberias, where she planned to settle Jewish immigrants. Dona Gracia is also known for the trade embargo she organized at the port in Ancona, Italy, which came in response to the execution of conversos who lived in the city. The embargo brought commercial life in Ancona to a virtual standstill.
More Info
283
