Category Archives: Law, Politics & Military

Jews in the World of Law and Politics

Jew of the Week: Don Joseph Nasi

Prince of Europe

NasiDon Joseph Nasi (1524-1579) I’m not sure why they haven’t made a movie about this man yet, but they should. His story is quite fascinating. In a nutshell, he was the head of a banking empire, the Duke of Naxos, the Count of Andros, and the Lord of Tiberias. He actively sought a national homeland for the Jews, initially hoping for Cyprus, later receiving a grant from the Ottomans to start settling Israel. He single-handedly triggered a war between Turkey and Venice, sparked the Dutch uprising against Spain and brokered a peace treaty with Poland. At one point, he went by the secret name Juan Miguel to escape the inquisition. He monopolized the wine industry in Moldavia and the beeswax industry in Poland, financed the Yeshiva of Constantinople (today’s Istanbul), established a printing press for Jewish texts and maintained a vast library in his house to be used freely by Torah scholars. For his foundational work in seeking to establish an independent Jewish state in the Holy Land all the way back in the 16th century, he has been called the first real “proto-Zionist”.

Constantinople (Modern Instanbul) – where Don Nasi financed the Yeshiva

Words of the Week

The entire people of Israel comprise a single soul; only the bodies are separate
– Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe (Tanya, ch. 32)

Jew of the Week: Joseph Pulitzer

The Nobel of Literature

Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) Son of a very wealthy Hungarian-Jewish family, he immigrated to New York in 1864, immediately enlisting in the Lincoln Cavalry and fighting in the American Civil War for 8 months. Being dirt-poor after the war, living on the streets, he gave up all the money he had ($5) for a promise of a job at a plantation, but it turned out to be a scam. He wrote an article about this scam and gave it to a newspaper printer. It was written so amazingly that he was nicknamed “Shakespeare” (he was also later nicknamed “Joey the Jew”). He became the first ever investigative journalist. At age 22, he joined the Republican Party, quickly gained prominence, and won a seat in the state legislature – despite being legally too young! Long story short: he became super rich (and powerful), bought a bunch of newspaper companies and forever changed both politics and the media. He left much of his wealth to the renowned Pulitzer Prize – the “Nobel of literature”.

 

 

Words of the Week

Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal… It is the most perpetual people of the earth…

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German dramatist, novelist and poet (1749 – 1832)