XX.

ISAAC DA FONSECA ABOAB

HE was the son of David Aboab and Isabel _da_ Fonseca. To distinguish him from his contemporary Isaac _de_ Matatiah Aboab, he is generally alluded to as “Fonseca Aboab.” He was born at Castrodagre, Portugal, and brought to Amsterdam as a child, where he became a pupil of _Haham_ Isaac (_ob._ 1622) _de_ Abraham Uziel. In 1623 he was the _Haham_ of the _Nevé Shalom_, the second synagogue established in Amsterdam. In 1642 he emigrated to Pernambuco (Recife) in Brazil, where he was _Haham_ until he returned to Amsterdam in 1654. (In 1640 Manasseh himself had intended going out to Brazil to join his brother Ephraim Soeiro¹ in business.) During Aboab’s _Rabbinate_ there was war between the Dutch and Portuguese for possession of the colony, which he describes in _Hebrew_ verse, still in manuscript. He was the first _Rabbi_ and the first _Hebrew_ Author in the New World. It has been alleged, that in his declining years he was a secret votary of Sabbatai Zebi. He was a great-grandson of the last _Gaon_ of Castile, the Isaac Aboab (1433‒1493) who wrote a super-commentary to Nachmanides’ commentary on the Pentateuch, printed in Constantinople in 1525. _Rabbi_ Abraham _de_ Samuel Zacuto, the author of the _Juchasin_, was one of his pupils, and on his death delivered the funeral oration.

¹ Ephraim had evidently discarded his surname of “Ben-Israel” for “Soeiro,” that of his maternal grandfather, who probably left no male issue. In such cases, it was customary among _Sephardi_ Jews for the second son of the eldest daughter to use his mother’s maiden surname exclusively, or add it to his own patronymic.