The reputed wealth and benevolence of the Portuguese Jews of early modern Amsterdam attracted many of poor and impoverished people. Not only ex-conversos from the Iberian peninsula but also Jews from many different countries moved into a city that was both prosperous and renowned for its relative tolerance. They were hoping for a better future, away from persecution, wars, and economic malaise.

Behind the facade of richness, however, poverty was a serious problem for the Portuguese Jewish community. It was one of the main themes that preoccupied the leadership and influenced its policy on admitting newcomers: the struggle to keep poverty under control and ensure that finances were available for welfare was paramount.

Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld looks at poverty and welfare from the perspective of both benefactors and recipients. Looking at the benefactors, she analyses their motives for philanthropy and identifies the different cultural influences that shaped their commitment to welfare. While charting its specific dimensions she also examines the decision-making processes of communal bodies and private philanthropists. At the same time, her detailed study succeeds in bringing the poor to life: she considers what brought them to Amsterdam; aspects of their daily life in the petitions they sent to the different welfare institutions; and the survival strategies offered by work, education, and charity. In doing so she considers the related questions of social mobility, the level of obedience among the poor Sephardim, and their motivation for joining the Amsterdam Portuguese community. Her research takes her beyond the established margins of the community to the small but active groups of Sephardi bandits, who formed their own clandestine networks. Special attention is also paid to poor women, who whether arriving alone or left behind, headed small family units and were often singled out for relief. In this way the book makes a much-needed contribution to the study of gender, in Jewish society and more generally.

This ground-breaking, multi-faceted study of the dynamics of the relationship between the rich and the poor adds a nuanced new dimension to the understanding of Jewish life in the early modern period.

'This volume offers the first systematic study of the poor and poor relief among the Sephardi Jews of early modern Amsterdam. It is a rich, thorough, and often touching exploration of the topic, and goes far in correcting the impression that all Jews in this community belonged to wealthy merchant families. Levie Bernfeld has given a voice to a largely silent but important population, in a work of meticulous scholarship.'  
Miriam Bodian

'The wealthiest Jewish community in the early modern period has finally received a comprehensive and detailed study of its poor, based on a meticulous analysis of a broad variety of sources. Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld has painted a colourful and fascinating historical portrait of the poor and ordinary people of the Sephardic community of Amsterdam, with their social and cultural profile, their distress, and the ways that the community leadership and its social elite dealt with their disturbing presence. This is one of the most important contributions in recent years to historical research on Dutch Jewry as well as on the western Sephardic diaspora.'  
Yosef Kaplan

CONTENTS

List of Figures
Note on Transliteration and Orthography

1 In the Beginning
Terminology: The Definition of Poverty • What Precisely Are We Trying to        Establish? • Sources

2 Migration of the Poor
Introduction • Poor Relief and Admission Policy • Country of Origin • The         Journey to Amsterdam from the Iberian Peninsula • The Journey from Other       Centres • Emigration • Female Migration • The Migration Balance

3 Demographic Outline
Introduction • The Scope of Poor Relief • Financial Strength • Family    Composition • Conclusion

4 Organization of Welfare
Introduction • The Theory: Modern Elements in a Traditional Approach • Poor Relief in Practice: Communal and Private • Conclusion

5 Financing Charity
The Public Sector • Reforms • The Private Sector • Conclusion

6  The Motives behind Charity
Charity Sustained by Piety • Inspiration in Action • The Family as the Main Object   of Charity • Civic Sense and Charitable Gifts • Prestige • Social Concern and Mutual Responsibility • Conclusion

7   The Poor in Daily Life
Introduction • Housing • Work • Appeals for Help: Petitions • The Level of Poor Relief • Protest • Life on the Fringe • Conclusion: A Motley Crowd

8 Epilogue

Appendices
Tables
Four Key Figures

Glossary
Archives Consulted
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Endorsements

'This volume offers the first systematic study of the poor and poor relief among the Sephardi Jews of early modern Amsterdam. It is a rich, thorough, and often touching exploration of the topic, and goes far in correcting the impression that all Jews in this community belonged to wealthy merchant families. Levie Bernfeld has given a voice to a largely silent but important population, in a work of meticulous scholarship.'
Miriam Bodian

'I consider this to be one of the best and most important theses I have had the privilege of examining in my career and one of fundamental importance not just for early modern Dutch Jewish history but for all early modern Jewish history. I have no doubt at all that her book, which is well written and clearly set out, will be a landmark in Jewish historiography, an outstanding work of research which will at the same time be very widely referred to by Jewish historians of many different kinds. The book is also impressively erudite, showing a good working knowledge of virtually the entire primary and secondary published literature pertaining to the Portuguese Jewish community of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Amsterdam, whether in English, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, or Hebrew. No one has systematically researched the problem, dimensions, and history of poor relief in the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam before, and Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld has carried out this task carefully, thoroughly, and convincingly. She has skillfully utilized the data she has extracted from the community records and other archival materials to expand and (in a number of cases) importantly correct our knowledge of the general demographic, organizational and financial history of the congregation. Since a majority of those in receipt of poor relief in the Amsterdam Sephardi community were female, the thesis also makes a relevant and notable contribution to the history of gender, and of the family, within a Jewish context.'
Jonathan Israel

'The wealthiest Jewish community in the early modern period has finally received a comprehensive and detailed study of its poor, based on a meticulous analysis of a broad variety of sources. Tirtsah Levie Bernfeld has painted a colourful and fascinating historical portrait of the poor and ordinary people of the Sephardic community of Amsterdam, with their social and cultural profile, their distress, and the ways that the community leadership and its social elite dealt with their disturbing presence. This is one of the most important contributions in recent years to historical research on Dutch Jewry as well as on the western Sephardic diaspora.'  
Yosef Kaplan