Menasseh ben-Israel and reason of state: the intersection of ideas and politics in the petitions to re-settle Iberian Jewry (1645–1655)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Menasseh ben-Israel petitioned to re-admit Jews to England in 1655. Historians have been aware that Menasseh utilized the ideas employed by Simone Luzzatto in Luzzatto’s efforts to avoid the expulsion of the Jews from Venice. Luzzatto employed the humanist language of reason of state, while Menasseh’s writings were all exegetical in nature prior to 1655. How did Menasseh, a messianist whose writings focused on explaining Jewish thought, who had shown no interest in humanist political discourse, come to employ the humanist ideas of reason of state popular in the mid-seventeenth century? Furthermore, Luzzatto’s petition is a meek request to allow Jews to continue to reside in the Venetian ghetto, while Menasseh addresses Cromwell as an ambassador of one nation to the leader of another boldly requesting to be admitted to England without disabilities. How can we explain this dramatic change in tone? This paper traces the links, as well as the crucial differences, between these two petitions by examining several other petitions on behalf of Atlantic Jewry as well as the international developments in the intervening period. This paper argues that these factors were critical in the development of Menasseh’s thought as well as his choice of language and tone.