Bueno

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BUENO

BUENO (Bueno de Mesquita ), family of Marrano origin. joseph bueno (d. 1641), physician and poet, graduated in medicine at Bordeaux, where he used the alias Ruy Gómez Frontera. In Amsterdam, where he openly professed Judaism, he became noted for his medical skill; in 1625, he attended Prince Maurice of Orange on his deathbed. Bueno, who was on intimate terms with *Manasseh Ben Israel, contributed a laudatory preface to his Conciliador and a prefatory sonnet to the De la Resurrección de los Muertos. His son ephraim hezekiah (alias Martin Alvarez; d. 1665) was also a physician, graduating in medicine in Bordeaux in 1642. He edited and subsidized many works; he translated into Spanish and published a good part of the liturgy as well as the Book of Psalms, helped to edit the Shulḥan Arukh of Joseph Caro, and wrote Spanish poetry. In 1656, with Abraham Pereira, he founded the Or Torah academy. Bueno's portrait was painted by Rembrandt as The Jewish Doctor.

[Kenneth R. Scholberg]

The bueno de mesquita family later became distinguished and its members are found in Amsterdam, London, and America. david bueno de mesquita (17th century) was resident in Holland for the margrave of Brandenburg, and was moreover entrusted with various diplomatic missions by the sultan of Morocco. In 1684 he served as agent general of customs of the duchy of Brunswick-Luneburg (Miguel de Barrios, Aumento de Israel, p. 172). In that same year "Enigma del principio" was presented in his honor when he was ḥatan on Simḥat Torah. JACOB (17th century) escaped from the Inquisition and settled in Salé, Morocco, where, in collaboration with his relatives in Amsterdam and London, he established an important business firm before 1670. He was one of those who expected the Messiah to appear in 1672 in Holland, according to an anecdote reported by G. Mouette (Relations de la captivité, Paris, 1683). He was one of the wealthy members of the synagogue in Amsterdam, where he had a very prominent seat. isaac and joseph were appointed by the Dutch government in 1682 to negotiate the peace treaty with Morocco that was signed in 1683, as a result of the collaboration of Joseph Maimoran and Joseph Toledano, both Moroccan subjects, and the rich Amsterdam merchants Jacob de Oliveira, Daniel de Mesquita, and Manoel de Belmonte. The famous Jacob *Sasportas also had a hand in the affair, which was of interest primarily to the Jewish Dutch-Moroccan big business interests. isaac was sent as the Moroccan ambassador to The Hague in 1729. The monument erected to benjamin bueno de *mesquita, who died in New York in 1683, is one of the oldest in the city. david bueno de mesquita (1878–1954) was assistant ḥazzan and later ḥazzan (1904) of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation of London (1901–45).

[David Corcos]

bibliography:

M. Kayserling, Sephardim (Ger., 1859), 206, 208, 262, 347; Kayserling, Bibl, 31; J.S. da Silva Rosa, Geschiedenis der portugeesche Jooden te Amsterdam (1925), 29, 39, 68; C. Roth, Life of Menasseh Ben Israel (1934), 115–6; esn, s.v.; sihm, France, 2 (1909), 288; Hirschberg, Afrikah, 2 (1965), 257, 268, 285; I.S. Emmanuel, Precious Stones of the Jews of Curaçao (1957), index, s.v.Mesquita, Joseph. add. bibliography: Y. Kaplan, From Christianity to Judaism (1989), index.

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