Las Excelencias de Los Hebreos: An Introduction and Translation of Isaac Cardoso's Seventeenth-Century Apology

Abstract

This thesis presents an introduction and a critical translation of a seventeenth-century Jewish apology written by the Sephardic Jew Isaac Cardoso. The Excelencias represents the culmination of Cardoso’s spiritual and physical path from Catholic Spain to the Jewish ghetto in Verona in order to (re)identify with his ancestral religion, Judaism. In the Excelencias, Cardoso defends and explains Judaism to non-Jews, and he helps other conversos like himself make the difficult transition from Christianity to Judaism. The project consists of an introduction giving a short biography of Cardoso, an analysis of the Excelencias, a comparison to three other prominent Jewish apologists of the seventeenth century (Leon da Modena, Simone Luzzatto, Menasseh ben Israel), and a comparison between the Verona ghetto and the Jewish community in Amsterdam (where the text was printed). Afterwards follows the translation with supplementary footnotes of the first two chapters of the Excelencias: “A People Chosen by God” and “One People.”