Benvenide Abravanel: A Woman of Nobility and Altruism

Despite 200 years of Jewish persecution in the Iberian Peninsula, several generations of the Abravanel¹ family flourished with Torah scholarship, wealth, and influence. The most renowned is Yitzchak (Isaac Don)², who wrote Torah commentary, authored Jewish scholarly books, was a successful financier and banker, and served as a statesman to several kings in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. When the Alhambra Decree³ drove them from Spain in 1492, Yitzchak and his two brothers landed in Naples, Italy. There, the family legacy was carried onward by Benvenide Abravanel, Yitzchak’s niece and daughter-in-law, who earned a reputation in her own right.

Little is known about her childhood. Benvenide was born to Jacob Abravanel after the expulsion, and likely lived from around 1500 to 1560. She married Shmuel, her first cousin and the youngest son of Yitzchak Abravanel. Shmuel’s stature, prominence, and wealth gave them high social standing. Christians referred to him as the “Jewish King of Naples”, while Benvenide was described as “one of the noble and high-spirited patrons…with chastity, of piety, of prudence, and of valor”.⁴ She was so well-respected that Spain’s Viceroy to Naples, Don Pedro, sent his Christian daughter, Eleonora of Toledo, to live with and be trained and tutored by Benvenide. 

Influence Against Expulsions and the Inquisition 

After Spain took control of Naples from the French in 1510, King Ferdinand expelled the Jews. Shmuel and his two brothers were among the 200 Jewish families who could afford to pay the government for the rights to remain. Under threat of expulsion again in 1533, this time it was Benvenida who used her government connections and prestige to successfully convince the King to cancel the expulsion, which he agreed to for economic reasons⁵. The price tag for Jews to maintain permission to remain there continued to rise, but it was a 1540 decree requiring all Jews to wear an identification badge in public that drove Benvenida’s family from Naples. They ended up in Ferrara, a refuge in the Tuscany region for fleeing Jews.

Benvenida was able to become an influential leader among the Jews and Christians alike wherever she went. This was demonstrated in her successful shutdown of a 1555 trade boycott, launched by another Jewish Italian leader, against the port city of Ancona, in response to the burning of 25 Jews at the stake.  Benvenide was devastated by the murders but understood the importance of avoiding the antagonization of Christians.

Using Affluence for the Community

Like many Jews at that time, the extended Abravanel family was involved in financial lending. Yitzchak Abravanel had been successful in banking and served as a royal treasurer for the kingdoms of Spain, Portugal, and Naples. When Benvenide took over the helm of Shmuel’s business after his death, she used her connections, particularly with Eleonora of Toledo who had married the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to expand an additional five bank branches for the family. 

Benvenida was able to become an influential leader among the Jews and Christians alike wherever she went. This was demonstrated in her successful shutdown of a 1555 trade boycott, launched by another Jewish Italian leader, against the port city of Ancona, in response to the burning of 25 Jews at the stake.  Benvenide was devastated by the murders but understood the importance of avoiding the antagonization of Christians.

Benevide demonstrated tremendous philanthropy. Following the footsteps of Yitzchak Abravanel, who had been heavily involved in rescuing Jewish slaves in Morocco, Benvenide is accredited with personally ransoming 1000 slaves⁶ under the mitzva of Pidyon Shvuim⁷. And as an educated and learned woman, she hosted salons for Christian and Jewish intellectuals to engage in discussion and cerebral advancement, but the doors of her home were also open to offer respite for orphans, the poor, and anyone who was in need of help. Furthermore, as Ferrara increasingly became a central location for printing after the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in 1450, Benvenide’s appreciation of literature fostered her early role in sponsoring the publishing of books that enabled greater distribution of Jewish thought. 

Marring her Reputation 

While Benvenide conducted herself piously, like fasting daily⁸, there are two incidents in her later life that may misrepresent her committed faith and spirituality. 

The first is her support for David Hareuveni, a false moshiach of the 16^th century. There is no documentation that she knew him personally. However, letters by the non-credible, cunning, and deceitful Hareuveni claimed that she sent him three financial donations, a silk banner inscribed with the Aseret Hadibrot, and a gold Turkish gown⁹. This should be considered with an understanding of Yitzchak Abravanel’s unwavering belief in the imminent coming of Moshiach. Abravanel composed writings offering the Jewish perspective and countering the Christian view of Mashiach¹⁰ and even identified the signs and conducted calculations that indicated the year 1503 to be an auspicious time for Mashiach’s arrival¹¹. It is likely that any support of Hareuveni was based on sincere faith and anticipation that Benvenide shared with her father-in-law in the immediate coming of Moshiach.

The second incident that put Benvenide in a controversial position is her central role in the debate on women’s inheritance rights. As Shmuel planned his family’s relocation from Naples, fear for his safety drove him to create a will that followed the secular practices of Naples and was not prepared in accordance with Jewish practices. The divisive contesting of Shmuel’s will by a son following his death addressed his decision to have the will signed by a non-Jewish municipal government notary instead of two halachic witnesses. And while Jewish law kept inheritances to the male line, aside from small sums left for his children, and some precious stones additionally left for the oldest son, Shmuel designated Benvenida as the primary heir and executor of his fortune.

A key contention of Benvenida’s argument was the role of dina d’malchuta dina when secular and Jewish practices conflict. Rabbis from Italy to the Ottoman Empire were involved in the dispute, and opinions were given by the Maharal M’Padua, Rav Yosef Karo, and other leading Rabbis. The dispute eventually was brought to arbitration, where she triumphed¹².

These controversies should not blemish her record of community leadership and prominence, and instead illustrate the unyielding integration of Torah into her life. She was greatly influential in both Jewish and Christian circles despite persecution, expulsion, and personal hardships.  Benvenide Abravanel’s reputation as the most prominent Jewess in Italy in the first half of the 16th century reflects how she used the power of her wealth, family prestige, and influence of her father-in-law and uncle, Yitzchak Abravanel. After her death, a religious shift to the right among Jewish leaders led to a diminished role of Jewish women in the Italian community, resigning them more to domestic tasks¹³. Benvenide was a heroine at an important time for Jews, and just as Yitzchak Abravanel’s death ended the family’s lineage of leading Rabbis from Spain’s Golden Age, Benvenide’s death brought her era to a close. 

¹ Abravanel and Abarbanel are used interchangeably for the same family, according to historical documents.

² This is the commentator in Tanach known as “Abarbanel”.

³ This was the Edict of Expulsion issued by Spain’s King Ferdinand in March 1492 that ordered all the Jews to leave the country by July 31, 1492, which was the Ninth of Av. 

⁴ Birnbaum, Marianna D. “Jewish Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Ferrara.” Mediterranean Studies, vol. 7, 1998, pp. 135–41. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41166866. Accessed 25 Aug. 2023, p. 139.

⁵ A Companion to the Renaissance in Southern Italy (1350–1600). Netherlands, Brill, 2023, p. 263.

⁶ Adelman, Howard  Tzvi. “Benvenida Abravanel.” Jewish Women’s Archive, 21 June 2023, jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/abravanel-benvenida.

⁷ The great act of ransoming captives. Baba Batra (8b) cites captivity as being worse than starvation or death.

⁸ Taitz Emily et al., The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E.to 1900 C.E., Jewish Publication Society 2003, p. 107.

⁹ Melammed, Renee L. “Life in 16th Century Italian High Society.” The Jerusalem Post, 2011, https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Judaism/Life-in-16th-century-Italian-high-society.

¹⁰ Rothstein, Gidon. “Abarbanel’s View of Yemot Hamashiach: Introduction.” Torah Musings, 24 Feb. 2017, https://www.torahmusings.com/2016/11/abarbanels-view-yemot-hamashiach-introduction. 

¹¹ According to Sanhedrin 98a, there are varying dates when Mashiach can come, depending on our worthiness.

¹² Today, most Batei Din (Rabbinical Courts) recognize the validity of such wills.

¹³ Taitz Emily et al. The JPS Guide to Jewish Women : 600 B.C.E.to 1900 C.E. Jewish Publication Society 2003, p. 106