A Righteous Woman: Doña Gracia Mendes Nasi

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 Howard Tzvi Adelman, Associate Professor of History at Queen's University. The program willl be moderated by Josh Nathan-Kazis, a reporter at Barron's and a former staff writer at the Forward.