Beatrice Nasi, who would come to be known as Doña Gracia, one of the richest women in the world, was born in 1510 in Portugal, where her forcibly-baptized, Crypto Jewish family fled from the nearby Spanish Inquisition. She worked to find a safe place for Jews, setting up an underground network to help Jews leave Portugal, including the Nasi family who lived in Venice, Ferrara, and finally Constantinople, where Doña Gracia assumed a role of leadership in the Sephardi world of the Ottoman Empire.
Join the Museum for a program exploring the incredible life and legacy of Doña Gracia on the 530th anniversary of the Alhambra Decree. The program will consist of a conversation with Andrée Aelion Brooks, author of The Woman Who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of Doña Gracia Nasi, and Josh Nathan-Kazis, a reporter at Barron’s and a former staff writer at the Forward.
Watch Here: