Sephardic Playwrights of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Amsterdam

Holland was the first of the Lower countries to give refuge to Marranos (crypto-Jews) from Spain who opted to return to open observance of Judaism. The city of Amsterdam became the center of Jewish hope in the seventeenth century. It was in this city that a number of Sephardic playwrights brought about a renaissance of Jewish drama. Although there is an abundance of scholarly research in the field of the Spanish Comedia and its main representatives in Spain, no critic or scholar has dealt with the small but important group of Sephardic playwrights who, following the footsteps of Lope, developed the Spanish Comedia in Amsterdam. This study analyzes the plays of these Sephardic playwrights: Miguel Levi de Barrios, Rehuel Jessurun, Moses Zacuto and David Franco Mendes. Contents: The Conversos of Spain and The Jews of Amsterdam; Comedias de Capa y Espada (Cloak and Sword Plays); Oriental/Captive Plays; Autos Sacramentales; Biblical Plays.