Outstanding Woman in Jewish History

Grace Nasi was the leader of those Jews who during the years of the Inquisition were forcibly converted to Christianity, but continued to secretly confess Judaism.
The Spaniards called them marans (pig. - Spanish) because, while attending Catholic churches, they continued to observe Jewish traditions. Of course, the term “hidden Jews”, abbreviated as CE, applies to them, of course, familiar to people of my generation.
9 Aw Day is marked by tragic events throughout Jewish history. This date in the eyes of the Jews has become a symbol of all the persecutions and misfortunes that have befallen the Jewish people. 9 Ava 1492, King of Spain Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of Castile, under pressure from the chief inquisitor, Torquemada, issued a decree expelling all Jews from Spain who did not accept Christianity. Many Jews, who were threatened with reprisal by the Inquisition, fled to neighboring Portugal, where, already in 1497, the Inquisition, under threat of death, converted them to Christianity.
Gracia Nasi was born in 1510 in Lisbon to a noble and rich family of Maranas, or, as they were called, new Christians (envelopes), who moved from Spain to Portugal after 1492 decree of the year. Her Christian name was Beatrice, but her name was Grazia, which corresponds to the Jewish name Hannah. She received a home education, which included the study of mathematics, history, literature, politics. She knew, besides Spanish, several languages, including Latin and French. The family tried to preserve Jewish customs and traditions, but only in an atmosphere of great secrecy, behind closed doors, where the inquisition did not penetrate. Suspicion of compliance with the laws of the Torah could cost lives.
All childhood of Gracia was spent in the conditions of the double life of her parents, when the rams had to pretend to be devout Catholics, and in the soul to remain faithful to Judaism. In 1528, at the age of 18, Grace married Francisco Mendes, a maran from Lisbon, a prosperous, very wealthy banker and spice merchant. He was 45 years old, and he was the uncle of Gracia. Another rich brother, Francisco Diego Mendez, married Gracia's younger sister, Brianda. (Marriage to nieces of one of the traditions of rich Jewish families, for example, was received later in the Rothschild family.) According to Jewish tradition, the wedding of Francisco and Gracia was secretly held at home, in the presence of a small number of close people. The public Catholic wedding took place, of course, in the cathedral.
In 1534, the daughter of Reina was born, the only child of Grace. Francisco affairs all 7 years of family life until his death in 1535, were extremely successful. However, the situation for the Marans in Portugal deteriorated sharply in the 1532 year, when Pope Clement VII, under pressure from King Juan III, issued a bull that officially established the Inquisition in Portugal. After this, mass arrests, beatings, mass confiscations of property of new Christians began and a strict ban was imposed on the export of their valuables from the country. Francisco Mendez enjoyed the special favor of the king for financial investments in his treasury and this draconian laws practically did not apply to him. Grace, who had been devoted to Judaism all her life, became the inspiration for the creation of an underground network that helped the rams to escape from the Portuguese Inquisition. Francisco and Diego, using their position, transported them on their merchant ships or small schooners, to whose captains they paid. Using secret routes, people were transported to France with wagon train wagons, which were later used by American colonists. At the end of the route, people walked across the Alps to France. (After 400 years, the Jews, fleeing the Nazis in France, went like this to Portugal.)
In 26, Gracea was left a widow with her daughter Reina and her younger sister Brianda. Without an influential husband, she was afraid to live in Portugal, where persecution of Jews intensified every day. Despite all sorts of prohibitions and the inability to pick up all her wealth left over from her husband, Gracia managed to move to Antwerp (then Flanders), where she already founded Diego Bank, with which she began to successfully manage family businesses. They continued to help Portuguese Jews escape the inquisition. However, in Antwerp hard times came for the many Marani who settled there. It was decided to expel all new Christians who arrived in this city before the 1543 year. Just this year Diego, who, on his deathbed, appoints Grace (and not his wife Briand, sister of Gracia) the heir of his fortune, who controls the whole company and his guardian's daughter, dies.
In 1545, Gracia left Antwerp and settled in Venice. Here, according to the denunciation of Brianda, unhappy with her husband's testament, she was accused of secretly confessing Judaism and was forced to flee once more, this time to the duchy of Ferrar, at that time an independent state in northern Italy. For the first time in her life, under the patronage of the then Duke, she was able to openly lead a Jewish lifestyle. She paid for the translation of many sacred texts into the Sephardic Ladino, the most well known of which was the Tanach, known as the Bible from Ferrara.
Despite the moves, Grace, who had a strong will and strong character, skillfully managed her huge company, which included banks, fleet, trade. She skillfully defended herself from the attempts of various monarchs to confiscate her condition. She refused to remarry or pass off her daughter as the powerful of the world, knowing that in this case she would lose control of her company. She betrayed the Rhine for her talented nephew, Joseph Nasi, whom she took care of after the early death of his father. Grace was tough and decisive in business negotiations and debt collection, including the royals. She had an amazing determination to build a family business using diplomacy, cunning and business acumen. She was probably one of the first women who are now called successful businesswoman.
The next relocation of Gracia was associated with the deterioration of the position of Jews in Italy with the arrival of Pope Paul IV, who was famous for his hatred of the Jews and the papal bullet issued by him, which contained 15 new laws and prohibitions against them. The Jews had to live in the ghetto, they were allowed to have only one synagogue and, in order to be different from other citizens, they had to wear blue clothes. In 1553, Gracia moved to Constantinople at the invitation of the Turkish Sultan. Shortly thereafter, Paul IV arrested the 90 of the Maran, accused of practicing Jewish rites. In exchange for the release of prisoners, the Catholic Church demanded a ransom for each in the amount of 30 thousands of escudos. In response, Grace did what no one had done before. She challenged the Pope himself, who at that time was the most powerful of people. Probably for the first time in history, Gracia organized a trade boycott of the port of Ancona in the Papal States, in which it was impossible to deliver goods for 8 months, until Easter. Quite a few Christian merchants went bankrupt as a result of this boycott. Having settled in Constantinople, Gracia became the leader in organizing assistance for rams and Jews who were persecuted in different countries. She contributed to the development of Jewish culture, supported students studying Torah, built synagogues and yeshiva, did everything to help refugees return to Judaism, the faith of their ancestors.
In 1558, Gracia received the Tiberias district in Palestine from Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent on a long-term lease in exchange for a substantial increase in annual tax revenues to the treasury. At her expense the city was equipped and surrounded by a fortified wall. Tiberias attracted many Jews from near and far. It became a prosperous Jewish city and a center for studying the Torah. The Tiberias project can be considered one of the earliest attempts of the Zionist movement even 350 years before Herzl. An important role in this, as in other commercial and political affairs of Gracia (in particular, in the boycott), was played by her nephew and son-in-law Yosef Nasi.
Thanks to his knowledge of European politics and his personal acquaintance with many European political figures (he studied and lived in France and Italy for a long time), Nasi had a significant influence on the foreign policy of the Ottoman Empire during its heyday. Sultan Selim II, who took the throne and was a personal friend of Yosef, made him into the dukes of the island of Nakos with the adjacent archipelago, which he ruled while living in his palace in Belvedere near Constantinople. Yosef contributed, like Grazia, to the development of Jewish scholarship, founded a yeshiva at Belvedere and created an excellent library.
In Tiberias, in the interests of industrial development, he introduced the culture of mulberry trees for breeding silkworms and organized the importation of Venetian tissues. He continued the work of Gracia and after her death in Constantinople in 1569, the death of which some then rabbis compared with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Saadia Longo, a leading poet and scholar in the Jewish world of those times, acknowledged that his views on the potential of women have changed under the influence of the amazing works of Gracia, her wisdom and strength of character.
For a long time her name was forgotten. Only in 2010, after 500 years after her birth, did Gracia Nasi receive official recognition in Israel, where they founded her museum in Tiberias. This date was also celebrated in New York. There is one lifetime image of Grace on the medallion with its profile. The inhabitants of Ferrara, in gratitude, ordered him to be made by the famous engraver Pastorini. They dedicated words to her:
Golden hand -
Gd's palm
Giving to the Jews
Climb out of the swamp
And to find a homeland.

An article in the 398 Forum newspaper with illustrations on page 15

http://russianvoice.net/press/forum398.pdf