Tehillim (Psalms) Amsterdam: Manasseh Ben Israel: 1634

Vinograd Amsterdam 32. Roest 200. Fuks (HTN) I 160.

The first Psalms printed by Manasseh Ben Israel

Manasseh ben Israel was born to a Marrano family in Portugal. After escaping the Iberian Peninsula shortly after his birth, they migrated to Amsterdam where Manasseh proved to be a brilliant theology student. In 1622, when he was only eighteen years old, he became rabbi of the Portuguese Neveh Shalom congregation. He founded the earliest Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam (1626), where he continued to publish works in Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese for the remainder of his life. For these works, as well as his synagogue sermons (at which gentile scholars and notables were often present), he was regarded in the world of scholarship as the leading representative of Hebrew learning. He had close personal relationships with contemporary luminaries such as Dutch Jurist Hugo Grotius and the artist Rembrandt van Rijn, who engraved his portrait. He is perhaps most widely known for his petition to Oliver Cromwell in 1655, in which he adroitly blended economic and theological arguments for the readmission of Jews to England. His efforts led to unofficial English acceptance of Jewish settlement, an arrangement which proved providential, since it placed no conditions on the return of the Jews.