Benveniste, also Benvenisti, Benvenista, Benvenisto (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 Salonica, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Serbia, Vienna, Austria. It was also used as a prænomen. [1]
[edit] People
- Sheshet Benveniste, ben Isaac ben Joseph, Physician and writer; lived in the latter half of the twelfth century. He was styled "Nasi" (prince). He received his education at Narbonne, his probable birthplace; afterward he lived at Barcelona, and later at Saragossa, in which city he died about 1209. He practised 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.
- Benveniste de Porta (died in 1268), Jewish Bailie ("bayle") of Barcelona, Spain.
- Don Abraham Benveniste 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. Under the presidency of Benveniste a Jewish synod in Valladolid drew up a statute called the "Teḳanah," 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.[2]
- Don Judah Benveniste & Don Shemuel Benveniste Grandsons of 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.[3]
- 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[4], 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.
- 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.
- 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
[edit] Benvenisti
[edit] References
- ^ Moritz Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." No. 7348; Loeb, in "Rev. des Etudes Juives", xxi. 153
- ^ "Benveniste - Jewish Encyclopedia". accessdate=2012-02-09. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=benveniste&commit=search.
- ^ "Benveniste - Jewish Encyclopedia". accessdate=2012-02-09. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=benveniste&commit=search.
- ^ "Antwerpen - Jewish Encyclopedia". accessdate=2012-02-09. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1626-antwerp.
[edit] Sources
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.
