Benveniste

Benveniste, also Benvenist, Benvenisti, Benvenista, Benvenisto, Ben-Veniste (Spanish bien venida = welcome) is the surname of an old, rich, and scholarly family of Narbonne, France from the 11th century, several branches of which were found all over Castile and Aragon, Spain and the Provence, France, as well as at various places in the Orient. It is also borne by families in Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Germany, Austria, North Africa, Romania and Jerusalem. It was also used as a prænomen.

The Origin of the name according to a family legend told to the late David Benvenisti, a prominant Israeli scholar, by his grandfather Benvenisti Shemuel Yosef, a prominent Jewish leader in Salonica, in the beginning of the 20th century is: "When our forbearers dwelt in Spain, one of the kings had a Jewish finance minister who also served as royal physician. He was also known as an expert in flora, particularly medicinal plants. Once, the king, accompanied by his Jewish minister, went for a stroll in the fields near the palace. The minister told the king about every plant. The king was especially fascinated by the malva and its pink and violet blossoms. When the king asked what the flower was called and what it was used for, the Jewish minister replied that its petals were cooked and eaten, and it was called "bienva." At this time one of the ministers, a sworn enemy of the Jewish minister, burst into laughter, and said to the king: "Your Majesty, that Jew-minister expert in our country's flora was making fun of you. He deliberately gave you a wrong name for that flower in order to embarrass you before your ministers and viziers. That is not a ‘bienva,’ but a ‘malva’." The king angrily asked the Jewish minister to explain, threatening him with dire punishment. The minister said: "Your Majesty, I am ready to accept your judgment. But first, I beg you, hear me out carefully. Your Majesty, when we were out in the field, you asked me to tell you the name of that plant. There you were, standing before me, Royal Highness, and I thought: By no means am I going to offend Your Majesty by telling you the plant's true name, ‘malva’ – ‘ill-going’! So I told you that the plant is called ‘bienva’ ‘well-going’:”. The king was mollified, and he said to the Jewish minister: “You have vanquished those of my ministers who wish you ill. I am pleased with your explanation. And to commemorate this occasion, I hereby; dub you ‘Benveniste’ or 'welcome.'”

People

• Sheshet Benveniste Nasi, (c.1131-1209) ben Isaac ben Joseph, physician and writer. He was the son of Isaac Benveniste Nasi (prince) the physician of the king of Aragon that came to Spain from Narbonne France in the 12th century. The Narbonne Jewish center was established, according to Jewish and Christian sources, by prominent Jews from Bagdad at the request of the carolingian kings in the end of the first millennium AD. The Babylonian names of Makhir, Hasdai and Sheshet are the names of chief rabies and leaders - Nasi (considered by the Jewish tradition as ancestors of king David) of the Jewish center. They appear together with the name Benveniste in documents of Narbonne and Barcelona from the 11th-13th century AD with the name Nasi added. Sheshet received his education at Narbonne, his probable birthplace, afterward he lived at Barcelona, and later at Saragossa, in which city he died. He practiced medicine, and was the author of a medical work, manuscript copies of which are still extant at Oxford and Munich. Such was his reputation as a physician that patients came long distances to consult him.
• Vidal Benveniste de Porta (died 1268), Jewish Bailie ("bayle") - the administrative and tax officer of Barcelona, Girona and Lerida, Spain. The brother of Bonastruc ça (de) Porta, Nahmanides, (in Hebrew Ramban), also known as Rabbi Moses ben Nahman Girondi. Born - Barcelona Spain, 1194 – Died - Land of Israel, 1270. He grew up, studied and lived in Girona. He was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Catalonia rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator.
• Don Vidal Benveniste (de la Cavalleria) was a prominent Spanish Jewish scholar who lived in Saragossa in the beginning of the second half of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th century. The honor 'de la Cavalleria', according to the Encyclopedia Judaica, was given to the family by the knights Templar who protected the family and the family in turn administered the tax system of the Templars. His family was connected to the development of the town of Saragossa in the 14th century, and members of the family Benvenist de la Cavalleria were financiers of the local kings. He was elected, by the notables of the Jewish communities of Aragon, as the speaker before the pope at the beginning of disputation of Tortosa (1413).
• Don Abraham Benveniste (Bienveniste) (died in c. 1450) of Soria and Toledo Spain. Statesman and chief rabbi (or "court rabbi") of Castile during the reign of Juan II, (1406-54). He was also entrusted with the public finances of the kingdom together with Don Yosef Nasi. Under the presidency of Benveniste a Jewish synod in Valladolid in 1432 drew up a statute called the "Takḳanoth," which was to serve as a basis for the administration of the Jewish communities in Spain. It dealt with the divine service, with the glorification of the study of the Law, with state taxation, and with the welfare and progress of the communities.
• Don Judah Benveniste and Don Samuel Benveniste Sons of Don Meir Benveniste of Toledo. Grandsons of Don Abraham Benveniste the court rabbi of Castile. They immigrated to Salonica in 1492 with other Jewish Spanish exiles, and with them they founded the Sephardic community in that city. They succeeded in preserving a share of their great patrimony sufficient for the purchase of a large collection of books. Several experienced scribes were always employed in copying the Mishnah, the Talmud, and other works at their homes, which was the center of the scholarly Spanish exiles.
• Don Vidal Benvenist (de la Cavalleria) Grandson of Don Abraham Benveniste was a prominent and a wealthy man in Spain in the second half of the 15th century. Together with his brother Abraham they negotiated a compact with the King of Portugal to allow 120,000 of the Jewish exiles from Spain in 1492 to stay in Portugal for six months. The Jewish exiles had to pay one ducat for every soul, and the fourth part of all the merchandise they had carried with them when they entered Portugal.
• Francisco Mendes (Tzemah Benveniste in Hebrew) one of the wealthiest traders and bankers in Europe in the first half of the 16th century. He was the great grandson of Don Abraham Benveniste. His family was forcibly converted Jews known as Conversos (also called Crypto-Jews, Marranos and Secret Jews). While still Jewish, they had fled to Portugal when the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, expelled the Jews in 1492. Five years later, in 1497, they were forcibly converted to Catholicism along with all the other Jews in Portugal at that time. Francisco Mendes|Benveniste directed, along with his brother Diogo Mendes (Meir Benveniste), from Lisbon and later from Antwerpen, a powerful trading company and a bank of world repute with agents across Europe and around the Mediterranean. The House of Mendes|Benveniste probably began as a company trading precious objects. Following the beginning of the Age of Discovery and the finding, by the Portuguese, of a sea route to India, they became particularly important spice traders (the kings of black pepper). They also traded in silver - the silver was needed to pay the Asians for those spices. They financed the kings and queens of Portugal, Spain, England, the Flanders and the popes in Rome.
• Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi (1510–1569) a Jewish-Portuguese businesswoman of Jewish origin (micas|nasi). Was married to Francisco Mendes (Tzemah Benvenisti), inherited the Mendes|Benvenisti fortune and became one of the wealthiest women in Europe of the middle 16th century.
• Imanoel Benveniste (1608-1664) a notable printer from Amsterdam that printed many books in Hebrew among them the Bible and the Talmud. He was from Venice. Indirect information point to his origin as a marano that converted back to Judaism and possibly as a member of the Mendes|Benveniste family from Venice (see Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi).
• Don Vidal Benveniste From Aragon settled in Constantinople after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. A writer of a book published in 1512.
• Joshua ben Israel Benveniste (c. 1590 – c. 1668), Physician and rabbi in Constantinople
• Chaim Benveniste (1603-1673), Brother of Joshua, rabbinical authority at Constantinople and later at Smyrna.
• Asa Benveniste (1925–1990), American poet
• Émile Benveniste (1902–1976), French structural linguist
• Jacques Benveniste (1935–2004), French immunologist
• Richard Ben-Veniste (born 1943), American lawyer

Benvenisti

• Meron Benvenisti (born 1934), Israeli historian and journalist, the son of the geographer - Israel Prize recipient David Benvenisti from Salonica.
• Refael (Rafi) Benvenisti (born 1937), Israeli economist, brother of Meron.
• Eyal Benvenisti (born 1959), Israeli and Int'l law professor, son of Meron.

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.