Doña Gracia: Women, Patronage, and the Jewish Diaspora

Identity. The woman known to history as Doña Gracia Mendes changed names, outward religions, language, and cultural practice throughout her life as the Jewish Diaspora brought her to new places and opportunities. In each pivot, she used her wealth and position to promote the welfare of her persecuted community.

Doña Gracia was the richest woman of her era, a successful businesswoman who threw her substantial resources into an intrepid fight against the Inquisition took her across Europe, and ran an underground railroad that conveyed an estimated 200,000 refugees to freedom in the Ottoman Empire.

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