Mordecai Sevi

Mordecai Sevi was originally a poulterer in the Morea, and sometime after 1614 he moved to Izmir and continued making his living in the same way for a time.

Then, probably in the 1630's, he gained employment as a commercial agent for an English merchant in Izmir, which soon made him quite prosperous.

• Source: "The Lost Messiah", by John Freely page 13

Mordecai Sevi, is thought to have been from the Morea, as the Peloponnese was then known---perhaps from Patras (present-day Patrai), which at the time had the largest Jewish community in southern Greece.

The family was probably Ashkenazim, since the name "Sevi" is unknown among the Sephardim.

The tombstones of Mordecai and his brother Isaac, who also died in 1663, could still be seen until 1918 in the ancient cemetery of Bahri Baba in the Karatash quarter of Izmir, but after the First World War the burial ground was covered over and became a park.