Amsterdam in the 1600s was a city of new beginnings. For Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal, it was the first place in centuries where they could live openly again. Among them was Menasseh ben Israel — born Manoel Dias Soeiro in Portugal, raised in Amsterdam, and destined to become a rabbi, printer, and diplomat. At just 18 he was chosen as rabbi of the Sephardic community, and in 1626 he founded the first Hebrew press in Holland, spreading Jewish texts in a new voice.
He was part of the Amsterdam circle of Kabbalists — men who studied the Zohar and Lurianic teachings, searching for meaning in exile and redemption. Whether Menasseh carried those teachings into his dealings with royalty, we cannot know. Yet he moved between worlds with ease: fluent in ten languages, printing sacred books, and corresponding with scholars and monarchs. Rembrandt painted him, Hugo Grotius debated with him, Queen Christina of Sweden welcomed him. Perhaps in those conversations, hints of mystical vision mingled with politics and philosophy.
Menasseh believed the Jewish story was unfinished. When Antonio de Montezinos told him of possible descendants of the Lost Tribes in South America, his messianic hopes deepened. If Jews were scattered to every corner of the earth, perhaps redemption was near. But one land remained closed: England, which had expelled its Jews in 1290.
In 1650 he published The Hope of Israel, writing to Parliament that the Jews’ return to England would not only enrich the nation with commerce and learning but also fulfill prophecy. In 1655 he sailed to London and presented his Humble Addresses to the Lord Protector to Oliver Cromwell, dismantling old prejudices and urging England to admit “the children of Abraham.”
Public opinion was against him, and the Whitehall Conference evaded a decision. Yet the door opened. Within a year, Jews were quietly returning to England, and through England, to the New World. Menasseh died soon after, poor and grieving the loss of his son, but his vision endured.
For leaders today, his story is a reminder:
Wisdom is not about choosing one world over the other, but holding both. Menasseh’s gift — to speak the language of mystics and the language of rulers — echoes the Ari’s teaching of shevirat ha-kelim, the breaking of the vessels. The world begins in fragments, and leadership is the work of gathering sparks and making them whole again.
Sources
1 Rabbi Menachem Levine (When England Expelled the Jews)
2 Eliezer Baumgarten & Uri Safrai (Rabbi Moshe Zacuto and the Kabbalistic Circle of Amsterdam)
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