Jacob Israel Belmonte

One of the founders of the Portuguese-Jewish community of Amsterdam, his colleagues being Jacob Tirado and Solomon Palache; born on the island of Madeira in 1570; died at Amsterdam Dec. 4, 1629. He married Simḥah (Gimar) Vaz, whose picture by her son Moses is to be found in David Franco Mendes' "Memorias do Estabelecimento . . . dos Judeos Portuguezes," preserved in manuscript in the archives of the Portuguese congregation at Amsterdam. Jacob Israel came to Amsterdam on Jan. 13, 1614. He wrote a poetic account of the Inquisition in one hundred octaves, which he called "Job." Of this, De Barrios ("Rev. Et. Juives," xviii. 282) says:

"Contra la Inquisición Jacob Belmonte Un canto tira del Castalio monte Y comico la Historia de Job canta."

Together with Rahel Yeshurun and Joseph Israel Pereyra, Belmonte drew up the articles of incorporation for the newly acquired burial-ground of the community in Oudekerk, Jan. 13, 1614. At his death Morteira founded a yeshibah in his honor. He left ten children: Sarah i., Sarah ii., Rachel, David, Rebecca, Joseph, Benjamin, Moses, Solomon, and Samuel.

Read more: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=606&letter=B&searc...

BELMONTE, Dutch Sephardi family of poets and diplomats of Marrano extraction. The first member of the family to figure in Jewish life was JACOB ISRAEL (1570–1629). Born in Madeira as a Marrano under the name of Diego Nuñez Belmonte, he was one of the founding members of the Amsterdam Jewish community.

Read more: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Israel_Belmonte (in German) About Marrano's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano

From the book "Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation: Conversos and Community in Early Modern Amsterdam (The Modern Jewish Experience)" by Miriam Bodian (Paperback - 1 Feb 2000):

The wealthy merchant Diogo Nunes Belmonte, who arrived in Amsterdam prior to 1607 and adopted the Hebrew name Jacob Israel Belmonte, has left an intriguing document: a prayer he composed in October 1599, while on the Portuguese island of Madeira - possibly just prior to his flight. at the time he was about thirty-four years old, already an affluent merchant who owned several houses in Lisbon. The prayer, though vague about the circumstances of its writing, gives us an inkling of Belmonte's state of mind and his convictions at the time:

"I have prayed for special mercy from the almighty God of Israel, with much confidence and devotion, [praying] that, persuaded of the great devotion with which I worship Him, He will answer me, and that knowing I shall always give Him thanks without measure, as well as [perform] certain deeds which I have vowed to perform (which if He so wills shall certainly be performed), that He grant me the mercy that I never offend Him. With great love for Him I express gratitude for these acts of mercy, as well as for many others I have received at His omnipotent hands when my hour was near; and they give me hope that I may improve my life, and that I shall not be ungrateful, and that I shall seek to achieve this, with His compassion and glorious grace [grassa gloria] with which I was created"

The prayer is simple, sincere, and, alas, exceedingly general. It displays a conspicuous absence of specifically Jewish content. Aside from Belmonte's invocation of "the God of Israel," there is nothing to indicate the prayer is Jewish at all. Indeed, his invocation of God's "glorious grace" sounds unwittingly Christian. In is what the prayer lacks in terms of Christian content - that is, any reference to Jesus, Mary, or the Trinity - that renders it a "converso" prayer par excellence.

There is little to be learned from the fact that at a difficult time in his life Belmonte formulated an emotional prayer, reminding God of his merits and asking for help. What is significant is that Belmonte afterward regarded the prayer as a concrete record of a moment full of mystery and meaning, a moment in which he found himself passing out of one life into another, as it were. After his arrival in Amsterdam, he copied it, adding that:

"these very words, written above, I wrote on the island of Madeira on a sheet of paper, on that very day, October 12, 1599. But because [the sheet] tore, I have made a copy here in Amsterdam on October 23, 1607. God help me to merit prosperity, now and in the future."

It is tempting to conclude that the anxiety Belmonte expressed in the prayer had to do with fear of capture and trial by the Inquisition. Unfortunately, no copy has survived of a poetic work (or works) which Belmonte wrote in Amsterdam and which might throw more light on this subject. The themes of this work were, according to De Barrios, Job and the Inquisition. The choice of subject matter speaks volumes in its own way. It seems likely that Belmonte was haunted, like so many other emigres, by memories of suffering inflicted by the Inquisition and was moved to express himself through a classic text on suffering from the Hebrew Bible.

The diary Belmonte kept in Amsterdam gives an impression of him as a steady, pious person who sought a spiritually rich life and was satisfied with what he found in rabbinic Judaism. In Amsterdam he followed the course of many emigres: he adopted a Hebrew name (Jacob Israel Belmonte), married a Portuguese-Jewish woman, and started a family. In 1614, he was the wealthiest person in the community - though this was not the case for long. His wealth and his commitment to rabbinic Judaism - a commitment which is quite evident in his brief diary - made him an ideal candidate for communal office, and he held various offices from 1614 until his death fifteen years later. Most significantly, he was one of the first members of the Imposta board, an institution crucial to the overall governance of the community and the establishment of communal norms.

Given the paucity of evidence on the early "Portuguese" merchants, a rather primitive engraving of Belmonte's wife Simha by their son Moses is revealing. Clearly she, too, was of a pious disposition. She is dressed spartanly, her hair thoroughly covered, clutching what is probably a prayer book in her right hand - the very antithesis of the fashionable "Portuguese" women depicted in contemporary engravings. Whether or no she shared her husband's piety and the eschatological hopes expressed in his diary, she evidently accepted a rabbinically regulated way of life.

Great review of the book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/0253213517

You can search for a large mention of Jacob in this book: http://www.archive.org/stream/belmontbelmonte00gottgoog/belmontbelm...

From Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern World:

The Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam had many contacts with Africans. Some of the early Jews had come as New Christians from Antwerp or the Iberian Peninsula with slaves or servants. Many of the Jewish merchants traded with the Arfrican mainland, either North Africa or south of the Sahara. They would often return with one or two slaves. In 1611, Spanish intelligence reports targeted Diego Dias Querido (alias Jacob Israel Belmonte), founding member of Amsterdam's first congregation, Beth Israel, and trader on the African coast. According to the information, Querido employed Africa slaves as interpreters in Africa and as servants at his Amsterdam home, and gave these slaves instruction in the laws of Moses, converting them to Judaism.

Lots of information from page 103 at http://www.archive.org/details/belmontbelmontef00gott from where you can download the free pdf of The Belmont Belmonte Family book

Tombstone inscription reads: "Monument over the grave of the aged, honored and may the memory of the righteous who walked with God (i.e., died) on the 19th of the month Kislev in the year 5390. May his soul be bound up with those who enjoy eternal life!" Translated from Hebrew to Spanish to English

In the seventeenth century, Amsterdam took in several thousand New Christians from the Iberian peninsula, descendants of Jews who had been forcibly baptized some two hundred years earlier. Shortly after their initial settlement, the members of this mostly Portuguese refugee community chose to manifest themselves as Jews again. No real obstacles were put in their way. The tolerance extended to them by the Amsterdam authorities was as exemplary as their new-found commitment to Jewish orthodoxy (barring a few famous instances) was strong. These circumstances engendered the new dynamic of a traditional Jewish society creatively engaged with the non-Jewish, secular world in relative harmony. Amsterdams Portuguese Jewry was in this sense the first modern Jewish community.

A description of Reluctant Cosmopolitans: the Portuguese Jews of seventeenth-century Amsterdam by Daniël Swetschinski

Genealogical work on the Belmonte and Da Fonseca families from 1599 until 1728 by Jacob Belmonte and Abraham and Jacob da Fonseca, 18th century. Portuguese / Paper / 20,7 x 15,6 cm. / [5] + 40 ff. / Variety of lines to a page / Current writing of the 18th century / On f. 1r-5v chronological list of members of the Belmonte family, with fold-out pedigree in the middle / Title on f. 6r. Fuks 372

http://etshaimmanuscripts.nl/manuscripts/eh-47-b-04-11/