Abravanel

The Abravanel family (

Another eminent member of the family was Samuel of Seville, of whom Menahem b. Zerah wrote that he was "intelligent, loved wise men, befriended them, was good to them and was eager to study whenever the stress of time permitted." He had great influence at the court of Castile. In 1388 he served as royal treasurer in Andalusia. During the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 he was forcibly converted to Christianity under the name of Juan Sánchez (de Sevilla) and was appointed comptroller in Castile. It is thought that a passage in a poem in the Cancionero de Baena, attributed to Alfonso Álvarez de Villasandino, refers to him.

Samuel Abravanel, Don Judah Abravanel's grandson, settled in

Don Isaac Abravanel wrote that his forebears were descended from King David, but this has been challenged on the grounds of lack of sources.^[citation needed]

Notable Abravanels

Several of the more prominent members of this family include:

• Judah Abravanel was a receiver of
  Alfonso the Wise, with whom he once had a conversation regarding Judaism
  .
  • Samuel Abravanel was the son of Judah Abravanel of Seville. He settled in Castile and became a patron of learning. He supported the scholar Menahem ben Zerah and had him elected
    Zacuto
    , Juan of Seville. He soon, however, returned to Judaism.
• Don
  Bible commentator
  , and financier.
  • Leone Ebreo
    or Leo Hebraeus (c. 1460 – c. 1535), was a European Jewish physician, poet and philosopher, author of the "Dialogues of Love", the eldest son of Don Isaac Abravanel.
  • Joseph Abravanel (Lisbon, 1471 – c. 1552), son of Don Isaac Abravanel, was a physician and scholar. He lived in Venice and later in Ferrara, and enjoyed a great reputation.
    • Isaac Abravanel II (died 1573) was son of Joseph Abravanel and grandson of the Bible-commentator. He lived in Ferrara.
  • Samuel Abravanel (Lisbon, 1473 – Ferrara, 1551) was the youngest son of Isaac Abravanel, and the grandson of Judah. His father sent him to
    Pedro de Toledo. Samuel was a patron of Jewish learning. His house was a favorite resort for Jewish and Christian scholars. The Portuguese refugee David ben Yachya, whom Samuel succeeded in placing as rabbi in Naples, and the Baruch of Benevento, a Kabbalist, were his close friends. Following in the footsteps of his father, and aided by his wife, Samuel was always ready to defend his fellow Jews. When Charles V
    issued an edict to expel the Jews from Naples, Benvenida, with the assistance of Leonora, intervened in their behalf so effectively that the decree was revoked. But several years later, when Charles V ordered the Jews either to leave the land or to wear the badge, the Abravanels settled in Ferrara, where Samuel died 1551, and Benvenida three years later.
• Yona Abravanel (died 1667) was a poet who lived in
  elegies upon the martyrs Isaac de Castro Tartas (1647) and the Bernals (1655). After 1630, with Dr. Ephraim Bueno
  , he published ritualistic works and Psalterio de David... transladado con toda fidelidad (Psalterio of David... translated with full fidelity, Amsterdam, 1644).
• Utah Symphony Orchestra
  .
• Senor Abravanel, better known as Silvio Santos, a well-known Brazilian television host and owner of the Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão conglomerate.^[3]
• Patricia Abravanel, Brazilian TV hostess, producer and businesswoman
• Tiago Abravanel, Brazilian actor, voice actor and singer
• Yuri A. Barbanel, was a distinguished Soviet/Russian scientist in the field of physical chemistry, born in 1935.
• The family name exists in the forms "Barbanel", "Voronel", "Abraben" and "Arnell"
• Boris Pasternak, the Russian 20th-century author of Dr. Zhivago, whose family claimed to be descended from Isaac Abravanel.^[4]

See also

• Abravanel Hall
• Davidic line
• Benveniste
• Sephardi
• Pinkas haKehilot
• 1632 series which has fictional members of the Abrabanel family with one (Rebecca) a central character

Notes

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Meyer Kayserling and Louis Ginzberg (1901–1906). "Abravanel, Abarbanel". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
• (in Portuguese) Usque, Samuel, Consolaçam as Tribulaçoẽs de Ysrael (Ferrara, 1553; 2d ed. Amsterdam, n.d.)
• (in German)
  Grätz, Heinrich
  , Geschichte der Juden, ix 47 et seq., 327 et seq.
• (in German) Kayserling, Meyer, Geschichte der Juden in Portugal, p. 264^[5]
• (in German) —, Die Jüdischen Frauen, pp. 77 et seq.
• Max Nordau, the important writer and vice-president of the Zionist movement alongside Theodor Hertlz, belonged to the Abravanel family, as stated in his biography by his daughters Maxa and Anna Nordau. In that book, the Abravanel coat of arms is displayed ("Max Nordau, a Biography" by Maxa and Anna Nordau. New York 1943, translated from the French). In this book "Frontispice", don Isaac Abravanel from the time of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain is alluded to as their illustrious ancester. Nordau spoke Spanish from familial tradition (the Sefardic modality).

References