Creator Bio
David Aboab
18th Century
David Aboab was an Italian talmudist who came from Jamaica to Curaçao to serve as a teacher and rabbi. In 1746, after a clash with the ḥakhamim (rabbis) Raphael Jessurun and Samuel Mendes de Sola, he was excommunicated. Later, he left Curaçao and went to Amsterdam, taking a manuscript about the events in Curaçao, in which he blamed Sola for the conflict.
Content by David Aboab
Primary Source
Regulations: On the Education of Bar Mitzvah Boys
The Messrs. Parnassim of T: T: [Talmud Torah—Ed.] having disclosed to the gentlemen of the Mahamad [board of governors—Ed.] and councillors the liberty which the students…
Primary Source
Text of an Excommunication
This text of an excommunication, found in David Aboab’s manuscript of Sefer emet ve-yatsiv (True and Certain), chronicles a conflict in the Sephardic congregation of Curaçao. The first Jews arrived in…
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