Category Archives: Extraordinary Individuals

Unique Jews In a Category of Their Own

Jew of the Week: Judah the Faithful

The Church’s Greatest “Heretic”

Lope de Vera y Alarcon (c. 1619-1644) was born to the Spanish nobility in San Clemente, Spain. Despite being a Christian knight, de Vera wished to learn Hebrew and study the Bible in its original language. He enrolled at the University of Salamanca at 14. His studies drew him to Judaism, and at just 20 years old, he rejected the New Testament and his old Christian faith. The Inquisition immediately arrested him and threw him in prison. He refused to eat their non-kosher meat. His trial lasted for over a year, in which he continually affirmed that Judaism is the only true faith. Soon, de Vera formally converted to Judaism, circumcised himself with a bone knife, and took on the name Juda el Creyente, “Judah the Faithful” or “Judah the Believer”. His imprisonment lasted six years, during which time many priests and missionaries tried to win him back. Instead, he managed to convince at least a couple of them to abandon their Christianity, too! The frustrated Inquisition had enough and sentenced him to execution. He was burned at the stake on July 25, 1644. His final words were reportedly a verse from King David’s Psalms: “Into Your hand, Lord, I commit my spirit.” Despite his apostasy, one Inquisitor wrote of him: “Never has such firmness been witnessed as that displayed by this young man. He was well reared, scholarly, and otherwise blameless.” Another Inquisitor declared that “de Vera was the Church’s greatest heretic”. At the time, his story inspired and strengthened Jews all over the world, and caused countless Marranos (Spanish Jews forced to convert to Christianity) to return to their faith. Today, many Spanish and Portuguese people are rediscovering their Sephardic Jewish roots and converting back to Judaism, and see Judah the Faithful as a role model and hero.

‘The Spanish Inquisition Tribunal’, by Francisco Goya

Growing Number of Latin Americans Turn to Judaism

Intriguing Stories of Latinos Converting to Judaism

Words of the Week

Our Sages taught: Those who are insulted but do not insult others, who hear their shame but do not respond, who act out of love and are joyful in their suffering, about them the verse states: “And they that love Him are as the sun going forth in its might.” (Judges 5:31)
– Talmud, Gittin 36b

Jew of the Week: Clara Lemlich Shavelson

A Yiddish Feminist Icon

Clara Lemlich (1886-1982) was born to a religious Jewish-Russian family in what is now Horodok, Ukraine. She grew up speaking Yiddish, and learned Russian against the wishes of her parents. This actually allowed her to start a business in her youth, writing letters in Russian for her neighbours. She used the money to buy books, and soon took a deep interest in socialist literature. Following the horrors of the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903—in which 49 Jews were killed, over 500 injured, and 1500 Jewish home destroyed—the family fled to the US and settled in New York City. Lemlich got a job in the garment industry, working long hours in terrible conditions, with no breaks or benefits, and poor compensation. She joined the International Ladies’ Garment Worker’s Union and soon got elected to its executive board. Lemlich started to organize strikes and protests. During one protest, gangsters hired by her employers broke her ribs. Undeterred, in November of 1909 she gave a rousing speech (in Yiddish!) and got 20,000 workers to join her in a massive strike which came to be known as the “Uprising of the 20,000”. This then inspired male garment workers to stage a strike, too, resulting in the “Great Revolt” that brought 50,000 to protest. The result was that employers finally took notice and slowly began improving conditions for their employees. Lemlich, however, was blacklisted from working in the garment industry. Instead, she turned her attention to universal suffrage and wrote: “The manufacturer has a vote; the bosses have votes; the foremen have votes, the inspectors have votes. The working girl has no vote…” and until she gets to vote, “she will not get justice; she will not get fair conditions.” Lemlich founded the Wage Earner’s Suffrage League. Two years later, she married Joe Shavelson and started a family, switching gears to spend most of her time raising her children. Her activism continued, though, for example participating in a housewives’ boycott of kosher butcheries to protest price gouging. She would go on to join the Communist Party of America, and then to work for Progressive Women’s Councils. She campaigned against nuclear weapons, genocides, and the Vietnam War. At 81, she moved to California to be with her children and lived in a nursing home. Even then, her activism didn’t stop and she convinced the nursing home management to join in on boycotts protesting high prices on fruits and vegetables. Today, Lemlich is recognized as a major feminist icon and an inspiration for countless Jewish women.

Feminism in Judaism and the Curses of Eve

Words of the Week

The world suffers a lot not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.
– Napoleon Bonaparte

Jews of the Week: Esther Brandeau and Esther Abrahams

First Jews in Canada and Australia

Esther Abrahams, first Jew in Australia

Esther Abrahams (c. 1767-1846) was born in London, England to a poor Jewish family. As a struggling pregnant teenager, she was arrested for petty theft and sentenced to seven years in the new penal colony of Australia. Two months later, Esther and her baby were aboard the First Fleet: 11 ships of settlers, colonists, and prisoners headed for Australia. She arrived in Sydney in January of 1788, becoming the first Jewish person on the continent. During the voyage, she had met a British officer named George Johnston, and the two fell in love. They married and had seven children. In 1808, her husband led the Rum Rebellion in overthrowing the local British governor. Johnston became the new lieutenant-governor of the colony. While he was away for four years to defend himself against charges of mutiny, Esther ran his vast estate and business operations. Among her descendants are a number of notable Australian military and political leaders.

On the other side of the world, another Esther was the first Jew to set foot in Canada. Esther Brandeau (b. 1718) was born near Bayonne, France. To escape intense antisemitic persecution in France at the time, she dressed up as a Catholic man and got hired as a sailor for a voyage to the French colony of Quebec. Eventually, her true identity was discovered and she was arrested. Jews were forbidden from settling in Catholic Quebec at the time, and her desperate pleas for refuge were rejected. She was given an option to convert or be expelled. Brandeau chose the latter, and was shipped back to France. What happened to her afterwards is unknown. Her story has inspired at least three different novels and a play.

Words of the Week

Israel became the people conceived in slavery so that it would never cease to long for liberty…
– Rabbi Jonathan Sacks